


Doctor's Training

by Kinkylittlewolf, phoenixreal



Category: Bleach
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Anal Sex, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Autism, Bondage, Chains, Cock Bondage, Cock Rings, Control Issues, Dom Grimmjow, Dom Renji, Dom/sub, Domme Nel, Double Anal Penetration, Dungeon, Flogging, Genius Ichigo, Heavy BDSM, Improvised Sex Toys, Loss of Virginity, M/M, Oral Sex, Orgasm Control, Paddling, Power Play, Public Scene, Public Sex, Sex Toys, Sex Toys Under Clothing, Social Anxiety, Spanking, Stimming, Sub Ichigo, Sub Shinji, Subspace, Switch Hollow Ichigo
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-14
Updated: 2015-01-22
Packaged: 2018-01-04 15:55:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 45,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1082920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kinkylittlewolf/pseuds/Kinkylittlewolf, https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixreal/pseuds/phoenixreal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ichigo is a genius at neurosurgery, but not much else due to his various hang ups. At 23, the head of neurosurgery is rapidly burning himself out and finds that he's caught the interest of a group of people that think they know what might help the overly controlling man. A little loss of control and release</p><p>Contains consensual BDSM.  Brief, nearly non-con scene.</p><p>NOTE: In rewrite!  Please bookmark and come back.  I will upload a new chapter when I've finished the rewrite of the previous chapters.</p><p>If you enjoy Doctor’s Training, please visit onthetrainingofdoctors/ashesofreality.com to read about my original yaoi novel that is loosely based on it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Burn Out

**Author's Note:**

> This story is a journey into the BDSM lifestyle. Please be aware that this type of lifestyle is not for everyone. I am personally not a member of this lifestyle, but I find the psychology of it amazing and interesting. For this reason, I have done a lot of research and also work with a friend I met recently who is adorables (kinkylittlewolf, *waves*). She has been wonderful in helping me tweak this in areas where there are errors that occur from simply not having experienced the lifestyle I’m talking about. This is a journey of self-discovery, dealing with disabilities and disorders and learning to let go when it becomes necessary. Along the way, I hope you enjoy learning alongside Ichigo, and if you have interest in this lifestyle, please feel free to message me. In each chapter, I will try and give some informational websites that I’ve found both accurate and useful.
> 
> This is the second version of this, so there have been extensive edits and/or additions to the story, along with corrections to terminology and vernacular common here. Also, I must point out, some things used here are different when used in the straight or LGBT community at large.
> 
> WARNINGS: I will not repeat these. This story at any time may contain:  
> Graphic depictions of sexual (consensual) acts (including but not limited to activities that could be classified as sexual torture in cases of non-consent, rape fantasy, dirty talk and abusive language and scenes of sexual slavery).  
> Graphic descriptions of bondage and sado/masochism in action.  
> One instance of molestation and attempted rape.
> 
> So if any of that bothers you, please click the back button. If you are instead, intrigued, please continue and enjoy yourself with one of my guilty pleasures. I blame Anne Rice and her Sleeping Beauty books for giving me this kink…  
> Bleach doesn’t belong to me, nor do any of the websites I mention.
> 
> I am not making any money off this (I wish), either from writing using the Bleach characters or from the pages I link for informational purposes.
> 
> Re-uploaded with edits:

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter One Edits Loaded: 5-13

 

 

               Ichigo Kurosaki was a child prodigy. By the age of 23, he was head neurosurgeon at Karakura General Hospital. It helped that he received his first degree at the age of 14. His father was a doctor at the same hospital, and was the current head of the pediatrics department. He fit in quite nicely, after all the man was a complete goofball. Of course, being the head of neurosurgery at 23, as well as a widely published doctor, meant a lot of trouble for the young man, especially considering he hated to go out in public, and despised being interviewed. He also had to deal with his own issues that had to do with dealing with patients and families. And today he was sitting in his office experiencing the brunt of it from an irate woman.

                “What? Seriously, who the hell is this? I said I wanted the head of your neurosurgery department, that Kurosaki guy, not some kid,” she said, looking behind her at the Administrative head of the hospital, Dr. Kisuke Urahara. Said man sighed deeply. He wished this didn’t happen so often.

                Ichigo rubbed his nose. The woman, he forgot her first name, had brought her daughter into the ER with severe headaches about a month ago, and scans revealed what was labeled an inoperable tumor. Of course, the ER neuro was not one of the best neurosurgeons in the country, and the case was referred directly to him. Of course, before the girl’s mother would let him do anything, she’d called in several private doctors who referred to hospice and advised her to make her child comfortable. The young woman, Orihime Inoue, was currently admitted and awaiting determination on what to do now since no one else seemed able to help. It was annoying; the girl was 19, so the hospital didn’t have to work with her nightmare of a mother. But here they sat anyway as if the girl were twelve years old.

                “Ms. Inoue, have you done any research about Dr. Kurosaki?” Urahara asked quietly.

                She turned and glared at him. “Of course! All of the doctors I called in referred me to him as the best in the country.”

                “And in that research did you find a picture of him?” he continued. Ichigo was terrible about photographs and video. To find a picture of the boy, you had to go to Isshin and beg off a rare image of the young man.

                She frowned. “I found a Dr. Isshin Kurosaki, and assumed he was a brother to the man I was _hoping_ to find at this desk.” She gave Ichigo’s youthful face a glare.

                Urahara sighed. “Well, you would be wrong. Dr. Isshin Kurosaki, or as he’s called in this hospital, Dr. Isshin, is Dr. Kurosaki’s father, not his brother.”

                She turned and looked at Ichigo and snarled. “Even if this _boy_ is the person I’m looking for, there is no way I’m letting a _child_ barely older than my daughter open up her head!” she practically screamed. The statement made no logical sense, and this was why Ichigo hated dealing with people. What did age matter? He had seen fifty year old surgeons who had been on the floor for less than two weeks. Age wasn’t an issue, it was training and experience, both of which Ichigo had plenty of with some to spare.

                Ichigo groaned. “How many times do I have to go through this, Kisuke?” He made to completely ignore the sputtering woman at his desk. “For the sake of all that is holy, why can’t we publish my biography already so this stops? I give up; I’ll do the interview that idiot that keeps calling you wants, if it will get people to stop doubting who I am!”

                The woman turned to Ichigo with a frown, highly irritated at being ignored by the young doctor. Kisuke grinned. “Good, good. That will help. The writer is almost done with the biography. I’ll schedule the interview with the show tomorrow. But right now, let’s alleviate Ms. Inoue’s fears, can we?”

                Ichigo rolled his eyes and reached down into a familiar drawer and laid out the necessary documents. Every one of his degrees in plastic covers, his driver’s license, and his various certificates including his photo was soon laid out in front of the shocked woman.

                “Ma’am, if you want your daughter to live, I’ll take her in at eight am in the morning and remove the tumor. The chances of success, I deem, are about 10 percent when performed by any other doctor, but I’ll take that to 75 percent with me behind the scalpel. I have done some much more difficult surgeries in my time here, some of which were considered lost causes so much that no one would even touch the patient. I succeeded. The surgery will take approximately fourteen hours, and that is assuming no complications. As far as my experience, while I do not have the age you expected, I do have the training and experience suitable to this work.”

He paused and closed his eyes, reading the script in his mind that was for these situations. “I started my first rounds in as a neurosurgeon at nineteen, and was appointed head of neurosurgery here at twenty one. My IQ is estimated at 191, give or take, and I can’t put a bookshelf together to save my own life, but I can cut into a person’s brain with almost a .08 percent miscalculation risk on my part.”

He opened his eyes; his script was finished and he looked at her. He was off script now and that was a dangerous area with the current level of anxiety he was experiences. “Now, if we’ve got that settled, I’ve got rounds, and need to check in with my dad about a consult on a girl with a pending aneurysm that was sent from Tokyo here so I could help. Thank you,” he said and stood up and left, sighing deeply.

                He missed the smirk on his mentor’s face and the shocked and disbelieving face of the woman he left. This happened every time. _Every damned time._  No one believed that someone with his youth could handle this job. He wasn’t a kid. He stopped being at kid at eight when they realized what his potential was. He had finally relented and let that guy do a biography, but it had taken time, and Kisuke had been begging him to start making public appearances. He hated it. He hated being pointed out as the genius, the child prodigy, the kid in the world of grownups. Most of all he hated being in front of people and watched, and he hated crowds. It had been so bad that before he was eight he’d been put into a special school, unable to even make friendships with other students his age. And he truthfully didn’t try. They were dull, boring even, and the medical journals were fascinating. He found people’s _bodies_ fascinating, especially their brains, but he could certainly do without the personalities those brains carried. Each surgery was a challenge and a new opportunity to hone his exacting skills.

Of course it didn’t help that he was also busy with his own issues, trying to deal with his snappish anger and nearly overwhelming obsessions. He had the joy of being one of those great smart people that couldn’t relate to other humans for crap. Thanks, autism, for rewiring my brain, he thought for the millionth time. Granted, he honestly could care less that he couldn’t relate to other people. That part didn’t bother him, but it was a necessary part of his chosen job. And his obsession. It wasn’t uncommon, a lot of the kids at the school he’d gone to had the same social problems he did. But as a result, he hated crowds, hated to be touched on most occasions, but the on other occasions he just wanted someone to squeeze him until he could barely breathe. Today was one of those days he was craving the holds. But his dad and sisters weren’t around to satisfy that particular need today. So it made him rather anxious, especially after the nerve racking encounter with that _woman_.

                Growing up there had been therapy. Good lord, had there been therapy. To add to his problems, he hadn’t walked until nearly two, was mildly dyspraxic, and because of it, didn’t ride a bike until almost fourteen, and even then it was difficult to keep both sides of his body coordinated with each other. It was like his brain was on overdrive on the intelligence side and completely disregarded the physical side. His gross motor skills were all over the place growing up, but the one exception to his physical issues was his exact fine motor skills. He couldn’t walk without an awkward gait, but he could put together tiny puzzles by the age of six. By eight he was taking apart small appliances and electronics and putting them back together flawlessly, and cut out models that he assembled with precision that shocked everyone that saw him do it. Eight was when he started skipping grades after being given an IQ test on a whim by one of his teachers who noticed his steadily falling grades. To their shock they found his grades were due to him being bored out of his mind and lack of challenging material.

                He sighed, nearly tripping for the millionth time on thin air and cussing under his breath, walking into the elevator. He stepped in with a young woman with green tinted hair. She gave him a bright smile. He smiled back, staring at the numbers headed to the floor he was going to. He really, really hoped that the seven was lit because someone was getting on at that floor and not because this woman was getting off there as well. People just confused him especially the emotional dance between men and women. Yes, he was cute, adorable by most standards, he guessed. He was thin, lanky, and somewhat on the short side, only five nine when most the men around him towered over him, and his bright orange hair got him noticed all the time. He was graced with what people often called bedroom eyes, and he often found some of the female nurses staring at him. He found it somewhat disturbing that someone would have such interest in his ocular coloration.

                “Hey!” she said, batting eyelashes at him. He found that women tended to do that when they were attempting to flirt with a person of their preferred gender.

                “H-hey,” he responded, glancing at her, face turning pink as usual when someone spoke to him casually. He really didn’t do casual well at all. He had a few scripts for it, but he always seemed to be lacking the one he needed because there were so many variations in social situations and expectation. Expectation. He was so very tired of expectations.

                “Are you a doctor here?” she continued, twirling a strand of green around her finger and blinking at him. She was taller than he was, so he felt a little caged.

                “Um, yeah,” he answered. When was this dumb elevator going to get to the floor he wanted?

                “Oh, you are so young, are you an intern?” she said, moving closer, making Ichigo back away into the side of the elevator with a bump. He nearly dropped his files.

                “N-no,” he said, glancing at her, then back up to the lit numbers. One more floor. One more floor.

                “Aw, really? What do you do?” she cooed almost in his ear. He jumped. When had she moved there?

                “I-I’m head of neurosurgery, but I gotta patient waiting, nice talking to you,” he stammered, almost tripping as he couldn’t get out of the elevator fast enough, the girl following him. Damn, he thought, she was getting off at the same floor. It would be his luck she’d be heading to the same blasted room he was.

                He sighed and wound his way around the seventh floor and saw the room he was looking for, 756, and knocked before opening it. In the bed was a very pretty girl with long hair that was a dark strawberry blonde color, and wide gray eyes. He gave her his best “I’m a nice doctor” smile that he practiced so much in front of the mirror and picked up her chart, flipping through it at the information there.

                “Um, hello, who are you?” she asked timidly.

                “Dr. Kurosaki. Assuming that you sign for the surgery, I’ll be taking the tumor out of your head first thing in the morning, and by tomorrow night you’ll be having terrible hospital food for dinner,” he said looking up and smiling again.

God, could his smile get any faker? Granted, it worked, because the anxious look on her face faded to be replaced with a soft smile. It did fascinate him to watch the reactions of people around him when he attempted to mime the actions and motions of being normal.

                He heard muffled talking and the door opened. The green haired menace from the elevator was walking in with the girl’s mother. Great, more people. It was hard enough dealing with his patients, but family and friends were a nightmare.

                “Dr. Kurosaki, you beat me here,” the woman said, looking anywhere but his face. It appeared that Kisuke had taken a bit to give her a talk.

                “Hum, yes, I was just telling your daughter that I would be performing the surgery in the morning if she agreed to it,” he said nodding at them, focusing his eyes on their noses to avoid their piercing gazes.

                The green haired woman was gaping. She was pretty, red tattoos under her eyes, and a body that most women would die for. “You…you were serious? You’re like twenty!”

                Ichigo arched a brow, turning back to the chart. “Actually, I turned twenty three last month, but that doesn’t change the fact that I need a decision on the surgery today so I can set up the staff for in the morning. Miss Orihime’s surgery would take top priority as one step down from emergency. The mass is large enough to start interfering with her body functions, and if it isn’t removed, her estimated time to live is around six to ten months, depending on results of chemotherapy. But my experience with this type of tumor is that it does not respond that well, and chemo is hell.”

                He received blinking eyes as a response. “You are cold,” the busty green haired woman said. “Do you not have any bedside manner?”

                Ichigo frowned, looking up in thought. He ran through what he’d said. “Um, I believe I included everything on the checklist,” he muttered to himself, mentally clicking off the checklist in his mind. Smile at the patient, check. Joke with the patient about bad hospital food post-surgery, check. Explain place of priority of surgery compared to others, check… He paused. That’s when he’d been interrupted. And he couldn’t be sure he’d done it properly.

                Orihime frowned. “Checklist?”

                “Oh, I didn’t mean to say that out loud. My checklist for informing patients of surgery and risks and benefits. And I thought I’d done what I was supposed to…” he said thoughtfully. Had he done the risk and benefit portion wrong again? That was the hardest for him as he tended to get technical and provide more information than the patient really wanted from him.

                There were exchanged looks between the two young women and an arched brow from the elder woman in the room. “I’m not sure I get what you mean, Doctor, why do you have a checklist for that?”

                He arched a brow and scowled. “Because if I didn’t I wouldn’t be nearly as socially acceptable. What I would say and what I do say are different things, but never mind that. I still have to have a choice on the surgery. This day is seriously going far from my way,” he muttered the last. “I’ll leave the paperwork, my nurse, she’s better at the…people thing…so she’ll come in and talk to you.”

                He left and was talking to a short dark haired woman outside who sighed deeply and nodded, rolling her eyes as she walked away from him. She entered the room with a cheery smile.

                “So, we have Miss Orihime? How are you today? I see you met Dr. Kurosaki, and he said he perhaps was…ah, well, his normal self, so I am damage control as usual. My name is Arisawa Tatsuki, so I’ll take any questions about the procedure. I’ll be assisting the doctor during the surgery as well as being his liaison with those in the waiting room during the long procedure,” she said, glancing about.

                “Yeah, I got a question, what is it with him? He’s…so…” the green haired girl said, searching for the word.

                Tatsuki sighed. “I really can’t go into details on the doctor’s issues, but all you need to know is that he does the best he can. I’ll say that people are not his forte, but once he is in the operating room, the man is a complete master.”

                “Nel, just leave the issue,” Orihime said from the bed. “I think he was trying, with that whole checklist thing…”

                Tatsuki arched a brow. “Ah, something really bothered him if he mentioned his checklists.”

                Nel frowned. “Bothered him? He looked like nothing bothered him.”

                “He doesn’t mention his checklists unless he thinks he’s messed one of them up and has to go over them, so I’m assuming you mentioned something about what he was doing?” she said.

                “I said he didn’t have much of a bedside manner,” she said, glancing at her friend in the bed.

                Tatsuki nodded. “Bedside manner checklist, most often brought up by people. God, poor kid. He always has trouble with that one.”

                Orihime cleared her throat. “What is this checklist, I mean, I don’t mean to pry, but he is going to be cutting my skull open tomorrow…”

                “See, Dr. Kurosaki doesn’t do well with social interactions. So, to cope, he has several checklists of what to do when faced with them. He does everything on his checklist, in the same order, every time. If it is interrupted though, he tends to get flustered and has to rerun the checklist, which means he sometimes ends up repeating things he’s already said,” she explained. “I’m guessing you interrupted him in the middle?”

                Nel and Ms. Inoue nodded. “He was already talking to Orihime when we entered.”

                Tatsuki smiled, “Let me guess, hello, going to do a surgery and have terrible hospital food by a given time, huh?”

                “That’s exactly what he said to me before they came in…” Orihime said, frowning.

                “It’s his script. He says the same thing to every patient. There’s more to it, but I’m guessing you threw him off when you entered the room. My guess is that’s what triggered his deviation and subsequent anxiety that made him send me in here.”

                “I guess I don’t understand, you’re talking like he isn’t all there mentally or something, and yet he’s a genius doctor?” Ms. Inoue said with a frown.

                Tatsuki grinned sheepishly. “I’m sorry this is why I don’t talk to patients about him, but I felt for him being so flustered when he left, and I know he just wants to do the surgery and save your daughter’s life. I’ll put it this way, Dr. Kurosaki’s incredible IQ came at a cost, and that cost was social skills.”

                Orihime nodded. “How much of an IQ does he have anyway?” she asked, suddenly very curious.

                “I believe when he was tested for confirmation last year, it was around 191, but he’s very hard to test because of his particulars, and it may be higher,” Tatsuki said thoughtfully. “But I guess I really am not going into anything you can’t find out on your own. Dr. Kurosaki had a biography done on his life so far, and he’s going to do a live interview next week to talk about it. He’s really a fascinating person, I’ve known him most my life.”

                Nel snorted. “Isn’t that a little conceited, doing a biography at his age?”

                “Not at all, he simply is tired of being misjudged based on his youth. He figured if he put it out in print, every patient that he does surgery on would stop pestering him about how young he was. It was worse when he was doing neurosurgery at eighteen…but it still bothers him to have people refuse to accept his skill.”

                There was a nod and things shifted to the surgery and papers were signed and everything taken care of. Orihime drifted off, her mother leaving for the night, but Nel opted to stay, staring thoughtfully at the sky outside. The young doctor was on her mind at the moment and she really was curious about it, to say the least. Soon enough sleep found her until the morning sun woke her to the bustle of surgery prep.   She headed to the surgery waiting room with Orihime’s mother and waited until the nurse from the day before came out with the young doctor.

                “Ms. Inoue, everything is ready. Orihime is doing really well, and she’s now in process of…of…” he said, frowning and looking at Tatsuki. He was still somewhat anxious when dealing with these people after he messed up with them the day before. “Um, how should I put it?”

                Tatsuki sighed, rolling her eyes, “I swear, Ichi…” She smiled. “She’ll be put in a thing called a halo that will hold her head still before we go in and open the skull to remove the tumor.”

                Ichigo nodded. He really didn’t want to go off script again like yesterday. He’d been a nervous wreck afterward. “Yes, that’s a good way to put it, but because of it, there will be some small wounds around her head where the device is secured. She’ll have been numbed completely, so you don’t have to worry about any pain from those small incisions. The surgery will be approximately fourteen hours once I begin, and I won’t be able to leave once it has begun, so Tatsuki will bring you updates as necessary. Do you have any other questions?”

                Thankfully, there was none. He sighed in relief and went to prepare. Now, here, he was at home. The smells, the scrubs and mask, the tools. Yes, this was where he was completely comfortable. This was the only place he was completely comfortable, as a matter of fact. Here he had no hang ups. Here he didn’t have to worry with scripts and checklists and trying not to piss off the wrong people and getting hurt. No, here, he was a king, maybe even a god, not that he’d ever say such a thing even to himself, but those who watched him work thought it. Not many were as gifted as this young man.

                For Ichigo, fourteen hours may have been fifteen minutes. He never watched the clock; he only watched what he was doing. It was tedious work, for most people, but he loved it. The small attention to detail, the clamps on the vessels, the buzz of the saw, there was simply nothing about performing surgery he didn’t like. He even managed to ignore the fact that he always performed in the theater. Above him, sets of eyes watched his every move and whispered in amazement at the effortless way he worked. Normally he hated to be watched, but this was different. He was so in his zone that the world could have fallen to the abyss and if his patient and he were left alone, he’d never notice.

The main reason for the watchers was that they couldn’t believe what he could do. Every patient he worked on was a “lost cause” and had been told they were dying. And so far, he’d only lost one patient, and then it had been a matter of them having ingested something before the surgery that had limited their clotting function.

                Finally, he closed up and stripped his gloves, and pulled his mask down and let out a shaky sigh. His legs were numb and he had to gather himself to pull out of the zone he’d put himself. He felt a hand on his shoulder and he smiled at Tatsuki. They headed out to the waiting room together to see that the amount of people had increased and he stiffened visibly, getting a pat on the back from his nurse/friend.

                “Uh, Orihime is in recovery now, and she’ll be able to have visitors within an hour or two, but limit it to fifteen minutes or less for today. It has been a long one, and she’ll need her rest. The surgery was successful with minimal complication. The removal of the tumor was a little more difficult than anticipated, but I am sure that there will be little to no permanent damage. She will still need to face some testing to ensure that there are no other problems. Now, uh, if you’ll excuse me, I have to head in for the night,” he said, bowing slightly.

                “But, what if something happens, if you leave, what happens to her if she has something go wrong?” the green haired woman said wringing her hands.

                Ichigo hated this so much, and he bit his lip. This was not scripted. “I’m sorry, but I’ve been in surgery for fourteen hours and I’ve got to eat and sleep soon. I don’t leave the hospital post-surgery of this magnitude for twenty four hours at least, so if something happens, believe me, they’ll wake me up.”

                He turned on his heel and left, and found himself nearly tripping on nothing. He stopped, realigned his limbs and headed off to the elevator to get some food before he fainted. It always hit him hard after surgery; it was almost like a drug, and now that it was done it was like he was coming down off a high.

                “Did he just trip over nothing?” a large man with baby blue hair standing beside Nel said. “He must really be tired,” he said, looking down at his sister.

                “Grimmjow, shh,” she said, frowning as she watched Tatsuki talk to Ms. Inoue. “Why don’t you go to the cafeteria and get something to eat, yeah?”

                He shrugged. “Sure, you want something?”

Nel shook her head, and he took off, shoving hands into his pockets and heading to the elevator. He was fascinated, though, by the doctor. The guy was younger than him by three years, yet he was the head of neurosurgery. And cute, to boot. Grimmjow grinned. Well, wouldn’t it be funny if he tried to snag a doctor for Nel…or himself… He snorted at the thought. What were the chances the guy was into guys? He considered himself an excellent judge of sexual preference, but he hadn’t even got the slightest clue from the young doctor.

He entered the cafeteria and looked up to see a white coat and a bright head of orange hair standing in line at the food counter. He was humming to himself and looking over the cold foods, as it was already ten at night, the hot foods were gone.

He picked out what looked to be a sandwich and studied it for a moment with a scowl, then put it on his tray, and chose a carton of chocolate milk. Grimmjow smirked. Wow, what a kid, he thought, then followed him through and chose a similar meal, with a far more manly drink of a coke. He watched as the doctor picked a seat in the farthest corner of the room and sat down, removing the white doctor’s coat. He was wearing simple blue scrubs underneath. He set about then picking apart the sandwich, causing Grimmjow to tilt his head and watch. Soon there were discreet piles, onions, pickles and tomatoes were piled on a napkin which was folded up and set aside. The lettuce and meats were carefully replaced on the bread and topped with the slice of cheese. Then he nodded and closed it up, and Grimmjow swore he glared at the parcel of unwanted toppings. Before he knew it, the bluenette was headed toward the young doctor’s table.

Ichigo started when a tray landed on the table next to him. He looked up locking his brown eyes with a tall man with lovely blue eyes. He blinked, swallowing his bite of food. He looked familiar, wasn’t he just upstairs with his patient’s group? He never really differentiated between “group” members, but the blue hair he recognized.

“Um, yeah, can I help you?” he asked, picking up the milk and sipping through the straw, not taking his eyes off the man in front of him.

“Huh, just thought I’d be friendly and sit with ya. Seem off on ya own,” he said, looking at the neatly wrapped bundle with the scraps in it.

Ichigo nodded, taking a bite again. After a moment he looked back to see the blue haired man quite comfortable at a table with a complete stranger. “Um, I’m not much for company; most people tend to steer clear of me.”

Grimmjow frowned. “Well, name’s Grimmjow by the way, but why would people steer clear of you?”

He shrugged. “Um, I’ve been told I’m…what was it, caustic. Blunt. I tend to be overly honest and people don’t tend to like that too much, I’ve found.”

Grimmjow was really fascinated now with the young doctor. “Ah, well that must be their loss. More honesty would do people good,” he said, biting his sandwich, noticing a twitch in the doctor’s eyebrow.

“My dad said when they were handing out tact, they must have missed me completely,” he said, almost sullenly. He felt the heavy pull of exhaustion on his lids. “It’s hard to try to remember people don’t like truth most the time. Gets me into a lot of trouble.”

The bluenette finished his sandwich and saw the kid’s lids lowering and realized he was about to tip forward onto the table. “Hey!”

Ichigo started, nearly kicking the table, blinking. “Sorry, I get exhausted after a long surgery like today. Especially when there are so many factors like the one today. I felt like I needed two more hands in there.”

“Don’t you have nurses?” Grimmjow asked, frowning. “Or other doctors? I thought long surgeries you guys like traded off or something.”

Ichigo smiled, finishing his milk. “Most do, but I…I don’t allow anyone in my surgeries. I have to control every aspect otherwise I can’t work. I use my nurses to do things like hold clamps, use the sponges, but I do the cutting, sawing, sewing, and all that. I can’t afford to let anyone else into the surgery. What I do…no one else really can do.”

“Humble aren’t we?” Grimmjow asked, leaning back with a cocky grin.

Ichigo frowned and thought it over for a second then nodded. “Ah, I see, you perceive me to sound like I’m bragging and boasting about my skill.”

Grimmjow’s grin turned to a frown. “What do you mean by that?”

The doctor shook his head. “I’m sorry, I tend to be honest about my skill and that tends to put off others as well. I used to get beat up in school for it a lot. That and my awful coordination. Oh well, I guess I should be glad my hands work perfectly, even if the rest of me doesn’t.”

Grimmjow smiled slyly. “You really aren’t boasting.”

Ichigo quirked an eyebrow. “Of course not. Boasting serves no purpose.”

Grimmjow nodded, following the orange headed doctor as he dumped his tray, disposing of the package of remaining things from his sandwich. He stumbled against something, or nothing, and fell into Grimmjow.

“Oh, sorry about that. Gets worse the more tired I get,” he said, smiling as Grimmjow set him up on his feet again.

“What does?” he asked with a curious stare.

“Dyspraxia, motor condition I have,” he said with a shrug. “I’m lucky, most people have it mess with their fine motor skills too, but for me it seems to just affect the gross motor. Used to be worse when I was a kid,” he said waving to the man. “Nice talking to you, um, going to sleep for a while.”

Grimmjow watched him leave with a curious look, something tickling at the back of his mind. The kid was so in control of everything. He’d seen the type. And from what he’d see, the ragged edges, the look in his eyes, he was burning out pretty quickly. But then, when he was 23 and was head neurosurgeon, his life had to be insane. So what did he do to relax…? He’d talk to Nel about it, and maybe that little nurse that was always around him.


	2. Constricting Control

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Two Edits loaded 5-13

Ichigo groaned loudly as Urahara fussed with his clothes. He hated this so much. He hated the fact that he was going out onto a stage, in front of people, in front of a camera for godsakes. He was unconsciously clenching and unclenching his hands until he felt a stress ball placed in one of them. He was thankful, silently, to have Urahara there. His dad wasn’t able to come because he was on rounds.

A far too bubbly woman with blond hair leaned into the dressing room. “Ten minutes, Dr. Kurosaki!”

“Ah, Kisuke, how can I do this? I seriously can’t do this,” he said, squeezing the stress ball almost hard enough to pop it.

Urahara pulled down at the plain black and blue striped t-shirt and adjusted the waistband black jeans. They’d decided to go with a dress that emphasized his youth to make the impact of what they were doing even greater. “You know this is what needs to happen. Every time you end up with a confrontation with a patient, you are getting more and more stressed. I’m afraid that you’re going to have one of those episodes again. It’s been years, I don’t want us to return to that.”

Ichigo let out a long breath. He was right. He was right. He had to do this. He had to get through this.

“Look, just ignore everyone except the host. He’s not there to embarrass you; he’s there to find out about your life and what you’ve been through. You have nothing to hide and I’ve provided him with pictures and documents to show the audience to back up what you say. Stick to answering his questions, and don’t go on any tangents,” he advised, shuffling the young man to beside the curtain.

Ichigo chewed nervously at his thumbnail again then stopped. No chewing his hands. An infection in the nail bed would reduce his dexterity. He took a long shuddering breath. He looked at Urahara.

“Kisuke, squeeze me before I go out,” he said softly.   “I know dad usually does it, but I need it now or…”

The older doctor pulled him into a very tight embrace, only letting go when he felt the younger man relax a bit. He pushed him back. “Better?”

“And now, let’s welcome our first guest, in his first live appearance ever, Dr. Ichigo Kurosaki!” the man at the desk said, grinning impossibly wide. He was tall, and his name was Shinji. No other name, his show was Shinji At Night. And for some reason, he was incredibly interested in Ichigo.

Ichigo swallowed, nearly tripping as he walked out on stage, smiling nervously as he shook hands with the blond haired man and sat down in the seat, squeezing the stress ball almost manically.

                When the applause died down he grinned at him. “So, welcome, Doctor! I understand that you prefer a little bit of order to our interview, so let’s start out with some facts about you! Tell us how you became a doctor!”

                Ichigo nodded. “My father is a pediatrician, and I suppose it was always going to be my calling. I started reading his medical journals when I was about six or seven I think. I was fascinated by the brain at that time. I guess that’s what led me to neurosurgery.”

                “Folks, I’d like you to understand that he started reading medical journals at six. Now Dr. Kurosaki, how is it that you could do that?” Shinji said, leading the questions just as they had scripted. Ichigo let out a slow breath. It wasn’t too bad so far.

                “Well, at the time, my dad just thought I was a little advanced in reading, but he noticed that I was understanding the journal articles. When I was eight I was failing school miserably, and was picked up for special education testing. It was through the testing they discovered that my problem was that the material was too simple, and I needed to be advanced. I was also transferred to a special school, and graduated at 12 with my high school diploma. I finished my pre-med in two years, to get my first degree at 14,” he said, reciting the script perfectly. He had practiced it so many times the last week over.

                The audience was a murmur at the information. “You mentioned testing; I assume one of those was an IQ test?” Shinji asked, leaning forward.

                Ichigo’s eyes flicked up at him. This wasn’t in the script. “Um, yes, I test in approximately the range of 190 but it is possible that it is higher just untestable by conventional means.”

                “That implies that normal testing isn’t effective on you. Why is that?”

                Ichigo’s eyes widened. This really wasn’t on the script, but the information was complete in the book. “Well, um, like it details in my book, I have high functioning autism, mild, obviously, but because of that, there is a possibility that my brain differentiations make my IQ testing somewhat difficult.”

                Shinji leaned forward. “Really? And how does that affect you? This Autism, I’ve heard it is nearly a sentence of intellectual inferiority…”

                Ichigo bristled. “It most certainly is _not._ Unless you are going to count Einstein among those inferiors. Many people have incredibly talented minds and are able to accomplish much if given the time and the patience.”

                “Oh, folks, I think we’ve hit a sensitive part of Dr. Kurosaki’s life! Please, doctor, tell us how you’ve learned to cope with this…disorder.”

                Ichigo gritted his teeth. “It is no more of a disorder to me as having blonde hair is to you. I think differently, to put it simply. I sense things more sharply and it gives me the ability to completely focus in on surgery and calculate hundreds of variables in my head at the same time.”

                The blonde arched a brow at his visibly annoyed guest. “Ah, yes, well, the obvious reason you are agreeing to interviews is due to the book coming out in the next month, which will be available…” Shinji ranted for a bit about the book while Ichigo focused on his breathing, his hand tapping against his thigh. The show went to commercial and he looked up to see Shinji staring at him.

                “Hey, I’m sorry, man, didn’t mean anything by it, just surprised, they didn’t get me an advance copy of the book…” Shinji said with a sheepish smile.

                Ichigo bit his lip. “Yeah, I understand. But you went off script and that’s not easy for me to handle in front of all these people.”

                “I am sorry, though. We’ll chat a bit more about growing up and show some pictures and your certificates when the commercial comes back, then you can scoot over while the next person comes out.”

                Ichigo’s eyes went wide. “I can’t leave when I’m done?”

                Shinji snorted. “Well, I guess you could but it would be awkward explaining to the audience…”

                He nodded. “Okay, but I can just sit there, right?”

                “Of course!” He turned back to the cameraman who was holding up a five countdown on his hand.

                “And welcome back! Let’s see some pictures of our favorite surgical prodigy that his father was so gracious to provide us with!” The slides moved forward, showing Ichigo at twelve holding his high school diploma, then at fourteen with his first degree, followed by the rest. He showed a picture of him in surgery, and several others wearing his surgical equipment.

                “Folks, this young man is phenomenal! Twenty three years old and already well ahead of most of the men and women in his field thirty years his senior! Please give him a hand! Up next we have the amazingly talented Renji Abarai!”

                Ichigo scooted over during the commercial break, nervously fingering the stress ball. He really, really hoped that the guy didn’t talk to him. Soon enough, the commercial break ended and Shinji introduced that man again. From behind the curtain a man with brilliant red hair tied up in a high ponytail stepped out. He was wearing an extremely tight pair of leather pants and a leather vest that showed of his incredibly toned muscular chest and zig zagging tattoos that covered him from head all the way to his waist. He waved cheerfully at the crowd and shook Shinji’s hand and sat down with a fwump and literally sprawled all over the couch, his leg coming uncomfortably close to Ichigo’s.

                “Renji, welcome back! This time, you’ve got even more clout behind your name!” Shinji purred, leaning forward to place a fist under his chin.

                The red head smiled. “Yeah, so it seems, things ‘ave been workin’ out well! The booming movie biz around here has kept me very busy!”

                Ichigo had no clue who the guy was, but eventually put together he was some kind of film star. He played in a lot of movies but wasn’t a headliner or anything. Ichigo concentrated on his stress ball, holding it between his leg and the arm of the couch and squeezing it furiously, trying to keep a neutral face. He hated this feeling of complete…whatever this was. Eventually they went to commercial and the guy turned to him.

                “Heya, Ichigo was it?” he said with a grin.

                “Umhum,” he said nodding, glancing up at him then back to the floor.

                “Whatsamatter wit’ you anyway? Don’t like me?” he said, a smirk covering his lips.

                Ichigo looked up and frowned. “I can’t like you nor dislike you as I don’t know you.”

                “Huh, well that was a new one. Whatcha think of me so far anyway?” he said, leaning toward him, a glint in his eye.

                “Too forward, brash and quite full of yourself, would be my assessment at this point in time,” Ichigo said, feeling his nails dig into the outside of the foam ball.

                Renji leaned back. “Well, you don’t beat around the bush.”

                Ichigo frowned. “Bush?” he said looking confused for a moment. “Oh,” he said, remembering that it was a metaphor. “Metaphorical bush.”

                Renji looked away as the interview continued, showing Renji in one of his recent scenes, a very naughty looking sex scene with a famous actress that Ichigo forgot the name of. Ichigo watched it intently and then glanced at the red head who was giving him a funny look. He arched a brow at him and shook his head, resuming his squeezing of the stress ball.

                Finally the credits were rolling, and they were waiting for the camera to cut out. After an eternity it did and Ichigo leaped to his feet, ready to dash in the back when he felt a hand encircled his bicep and he started, turning to stare at the offending hand, following it up to the smirking red-head. He scowled at him.

                “Hey, you wanna go for drinks after the show wit’ my crew, Ichi?” he said with a wide grin.

                Ichigo was frozen unsure what to do about the hand on his arm. It was all he could concentrate on, the stress ball in his hand starting to burst at the seams from the pressure when Urahara came up and grabbed him by the other arm.

                “Come on, you have rounds tonight, remember?” he said, sending a frown in the direction of the red haired man holding his arm. Renji shrugged and let go as the weirdo blonde in the funky white and green bucket hat led the kid away.

                “Man, the fuck dude, that boy is smokin’,” Renji muttered. “You sure that shit’s legal, cuz man, he don’t look older than fuckin’ sixteen…”

                Shinji giggled. “Nope, twenty three. And I think that kid is probably the most stressed out person I’ve _ever_ had on this show.”

                Renji looked at him with a cocked eyebrow. “Oh yeah?”

                “Ren, man, think about it. The kid has gone through like thirty years of school in like ten. Can you imagine how much of a childhood he didn’t have? And he never got to be a teenager from what his file read. Pretty much straight into college and then to medical school, never stopping to do any really normal things. Top of that he’s got his thing, that autism stuff, and I didn’t really go into the problems with his gross motor coordination…” Shinji said, glancing over his notes.

                “Gross motor? The fuck dude, speak English,” Renji countered.

                Shinji sighed. “He didn’t like walk until he was two, and still goes to therapy, it seems. But he was so nervous about bringing up his autism shit that I didn’t even go there. I heard he was brutally honest, but man, he pegged you right on…” Shinji said, breaking into giggles again.

                Renji rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well, he knew me for like fuckin’ half an hour, most of which I wasn’t talkin’ to him. You heading to the club tonight?”

                Shinji grinned. “Oh, you still cruising for a partner? I thought you and that little gal with the dark hair were gonna go for it.”

                Renji shook his head. “Nah, she’s collared already. But no matter, I’d rather have something more edible, like strawberry…” he said, looking where the doctor had gone.

                “Seriously? That boy is oblivious! I doubt he’s ever jacked himself, let alone let someone like you...well, do what you do!” Shinji said with a grin.

                Renji grinned. “Ah well, you know me, always got my eye on tha hard ta get ones. You meeting yer girl there? She finally gonna play our games?”

                Shinji smiled. “Finally! I got her fuckin’ brother to turn her on for me, took forever to get her into it, but no 24/7 for her, she ain’t that kinda girl. At least, not yet. But damn won’t she look good in that outfit I got for her. She said she’d try it, but only if I kept it light. So she’s coming, but she ain’t inta the public displays like the others. Nel is just too sweet, though. I want to make her so naughty before I’m done…”

                Renji cocked an eyebrow. “Only you would go out and find a woman who isn’t into the lifestyle and turn her into your own Domme. I still can’t believe you. Man. I offered…”

                Shinji shook his head. “Nah, man, I want a woman. And you sure as hell don’t look like one.”

                “Hey, what’s her brother think, I mean, if she gets into it, I mean,” he said.

                “Then ask him, he’s coming with her tonight. I get the feeling he’s a bit more experienced in it than we thought. Oh, and I’m bringing a switch with me,” he said, suddenly remembering.

                Renji grinned. “A new switch? Hum. Girl or boy?”

                “A guy, and he’s built about like that doctor kid. You might get yer rocks off on him since I doubt you’ll ever get that boy,” he said with a grin.

                Renji snickered. “I love a fuckin’ challenge. I bet you a week that I can get him under me within three months’ time.”

                “A week?” Shinji said, thoughtfully.   “Make it two weeks, and we’ll go for it. Work out the details after you _lose._ There is no way you’ll get him to even consent to go out with you, let alone sub for you.”

                “Like hell, bastard,” Renji said as they headed out together.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

                “Kisuke,” Ichigo whined. “That was horrible; please tell me I don’t have to do that again!”

                Urahara rolled his eyes but kept them on the road as he drove. “You did great! And the only interview I have scheduled is a private interview on camera and one with a magazine. After that, I don’t have any others on the slate for now. Now what was so horrible?”

                “He jumped of script!” he growled.

                “Ichigo, we’ve talked about this. You’ve got to get over wanting to control everything around you at all times. Sometimes you just can’t,” Urahara said with a sigh.

                “Sometimes I’m so tired of it,” he said softly, his head thumping into the cool window of the car. Urahara looked over at him, frowning. “I feel like I wound up all the time, you know, like I’m going to just explode. I swear, I need another surgery to get my mind straight.”

                Urahara nodded absently, wondering what would help him. “What about a vacation, huh, Ichigo? Get out of town or something?”

                Ichigo shook his head. “Nah, I gotta be at the hospital until that Inoue girl is discharged. Her radiation therapy is going fine, and she should be released after I clear her next week. And you know I don’t like going out of town at all.”

                “What about in town? Like a club, like that red haired guy suggested?” Urahara asked, really wondering where he was going with it. He just knew he really needed to get Ichigo to relax.

                “Too many people,” he said and closed his eyes. It was getting close to late afternoon, and he had to go check on his latest patient and see how she was.

                The rest of the ride was silent and he headed up to the lockers to change. Once in his scrubs and his coat he headed out, nearly tripping into his dad.

                “Oh my most talented and picture perfect son, how did the TV interview go?” he cooed, grinning like a madman.

                “Shut up, goat face, watch it on TV,” he snarled as he ambled away, tripping again over nothing.

                Urahara came up behind the elder Kurosaki. “Kisuke, I’m worried about him,” he said softly.

                “Yeah, he’s burning out fast. His tics are back, he’s self-stimulating every time he can, and his anxiety is shooting through the roof. He almost destroyed the stress ball I let him take onto the interview couch, and about snapped at the host when he went off script,” Kisuke said with a sigh.

                Kisuke Urahara knew exactly what was happening. He himself was an administrator now, but his specialty had been pediatric psychiatry and he had practiced as a developmental pediatrician, in fact, the one that Ichigo started seeing at around one year of age. Ichigo had never needed medications to regulate his symptoms, but if he kept going, that would change, and if that changed, he wouldn’t be able to perform surgery, especially if he headed down this road. Anti-psychotics tended to limit one’s ability to perform neurosurgery.

                “Maybe a girlfriend?” Isshin offered softly.

                Urahara sighed. “Tatsuki’s been trying to get his attention forever, Isshin. Are we even sure he likes girls?”

                Isshin thought for a moment. “I don’t know, he’s awkward around both genders. But he needs something to cling to at the end of the day. I don’t like seeing him like this.”

                In another part of the hospital, Ichigo sneezed violently and shook his head. He knocked on the door, and entered Orihime’s room. She was sitting up talking to Nel and Grimmjow. Ichigo smiled as best he could and grabbed the chart.

                “Are the headaches going away?” he asked, looking up at the girl, her head still wrapped with white bandages.

                She smiled. “Yeah, and they said I could go home next week! There’s no sign of the tumor, I’m just amazed; there were three doctors that swore it was inoperable!”

                Ichigo nodded. “It happens like that. But I’m glad I could help you.”

                He checked the IV lines and her last vitals in the chart and was thinking when he felt her hand brush against his hand. He blinked staring at the hand, just as he had the guy’s hand at the show and frowned.

                “Do you need something? I can get a nurse if you need something,” he said, glancing up at her face, noticing a blush spreading across it.

                He blinked when she didn’t say anything and moved to the end of the bed, replacing the chart and bowing a bit. “Well, let me know if you have any questions, Tatsuki will be around tonight!”

                Orihime frowned, and glanced at her friends. Nel patted her leg. “Hey, maybe he’s just shy too, but he is awful cute! Take it slow and easy!”

                Grimmjow snorted. “Yer one to talk, sis. You and Shinji just hook up a week ago, and yer already all over him and going to that club tonight.”

                Now Nel blushed. “Well, he’s really sweet, and he’s a TV star! Oh, now that I think about it, that doctor did an interview with him today, and guess who else was on there? Abarai!”

                Grimmjow smiled. “Well, isn’t that funny, wonder if that bastard moved on the kid, and that’s why he’s so fuckin’ jumpy…”

                Nel shrugged. “I think Shin would have called and told me if he did. You know he can’t keep from gossiping about that stuff. He’s known Renji since we were kids, after all.”

                Just then, Grimmjow looked up to see the young doctor having a heated discussion with the nurse. He was obviously agitated. He watched as he started drumming his fingers against his thigh repeatedly, harder and harder until the dark haired nurse grabbed his hand. He shook her away and Grimmjow pushed the door open enough to hear the conversation.

                “Ichi, come on, you gotta calm it down and quit doing that, you’re making the patients nervous,” she said softly.

                “Tats, you know well I can’t…I’m just…argh. I’m going to the roof and rock, okay, I just have to do something, and…just…if you see Kisuke send him up. I don’t think I can deal with patients the rest of today, it’s just too fucking much, okay? I feel like my goddamned head is going to explode, okay…” His hands started thrumming against his chin and he rocked back on his heels.

                “Okay, okay, I’ll cover, go upstairs, and work it out, okay? Do what you have to do. Was it that interview?” she said.

                He nodded vigorously. “Fuck, fuck, yes, fuck. He went off script and messed me up.”

                “Shh, watch your mouth down here,” she said, frowning.

                He glared at her. “You know I can’t fucking control it. I’m going up.”

                He turned on his heels and almost ran for the door. Grimmjow watched him go and the exasperated sigh from the nurse. He slipped out, and casually followed him, catching up when he got to the stairs, realizing that it took him a bit to navigate them. He was quiet and heard the key in the roof access and the door swung wide. He grinned, catching it and slipping out before the self-locking door closed behind him. He peered around a concrete divider to see him leaning back against a half wall that ran in the middle of roof, rocking his body back and forth, hands interlocked over his head. His face was almost blissful at the action. Then he wrapped his arms tightly around himself and continued the motion. Grimmjow moved around when he heard the door open and a blonde doctor came out.

                “Ichigo, you’ve got to get yourself under control. I can’t have you snapping at patients, you know that,” he said, staring. “You’re ticking and stimming again. What’s got you worked up?”

                He looked up. “Fuck, Kisuke. I don’t know. My nerves are shot.”

                “Your burning yourself out…that’s what,” he said softly.

                He swallowed. “Get me another surgery, I don’t care what, give me a cardiology or a fuckin’ gall bladder, just let me into a surgery so I can think.”

                “Ichigo, you can’t do that. I’ve told you before. No way will I let you do surgery if you’re stimming like this. How can I be sure you won’t start drumming in surgery?” he said frowning.

                “I won’t, you know that! That’s the only place I’m fuckin’ normal!” he was getting exasperated.

                Urahara read the storm coming. “Ichigo. Stop. Sit. Think.”

                Ichigo dropped to sit down crossing his legs and closed his eyes, focusing. “Okay. Better. Not great, but better.”

                “Now, you know if you start on the medications you can’t do surgery, so we have to get through this. You need a break, you know that. How long has it been since you’ve gone out? You could take that Tatsuki girl on a nice date…quiet restaurant…”

                Ichigo glared at him. “No way, she’s like…like my sister.”

                Urahara nodded. “How about that girl that’s been hanging out with your patient? She seems to like you enough.”

                He again shook his head. “Eh, no. I just…I don’t like her like _that._ ”

                Urahara smiled a sly smile. “What about that guy earlier that tried to ask you to the club with his friends? He seemed nice enough.”

                Ichigo shook his head. “Too many people, though he was kinda nice.”

                Urahara grinned even wider. Bingo. So that was the trick. He wasn’t into girls. “Okay, well, what about taking out one of your nurses, like Yumichika, he’s always thought you were cute, talks about you all the time…”

                Ichigo looked at him and frowned. “He’s so…I don’t know. Too girly. He wears make up, and those weird feathers. Besides I think Dr. Ikkaku and him are already dating.”

                Urahara was quite pleased with himself. He was getting all kinds of information out of the boy. He wasn’t sure how his dad would take finding out his only son wasn’t interested in procreation. But it honestly didn’t surprise him. Then he smiled.

                “Hey, didn’t you say you talked to that one guy in the cafeteria?” Urahara hadn’t recognized that pink dusting on his cheeks for what it was when he told him about talking to him and falling right into him.

                Ichigo’s face became slightly pink again. “Ah, yeah, he was just being nice though.”

                “Ha, I have you figured out! You’ve got a crush on him.” Urahara said and kneeled beside him. “I saw him down at your patient’s room, why not go talk to him?”

                Ichigo looked up, abhorred at the thought. “I can’t do that, Kisuke! I…I can’t even…oh gods,” he muttered, burying his head in his hands. “Don’t tell dad, okay, I don’t know if he…”

                “Ichigo, don’t tell him what? That you like guys instead of girls? Do you really think he’s going to care?” Urahara said, still kneeling in front of him. “After everything, you know that he loves you for you, not what’s up here,” he said, pointing to his head. “That’s what matters to him. Follow this,” he said pointing to his chest. “And find someone that makes your heart beat for them.”

                “I’m not going to be an organ donor,” he muttered, avoiding the obviously metaphoric statement.

                “Come on, you okay or you need to go home?” he said.

                “Do the hold again, okay, the really, really, really tight one,” he said, glancing up at the shaded eyes.

                “You know I don’t like that one,” Urahara said softly, frowning. “I’m afraid you’ll pass out one of these days.”

                “Please, Kisuke, you’re the only one strong enough to do it and I really need it right now, or I can’t go back in there,” he said, standing and turning his back to the other man.

                Grimmjow could see he was facing him now as the other man sighed and shook his head. Ichigo reached his arms in front and crossed them over his chest. Urahara then crossed his arms in front of his and began to squeeze him in his grip. Ichigo’s eyes fluttered and he sighed out his breath and it was obvious the pressure on his chest was keeping him from breathing in. There was a moment and the man behind him let go, sending the orange haired doctor staggering forward a bit, panting. He shook his hands out and straightened up.

                “Okay, I have to apologize to Tatsuki…I kind of went off on the cussing tick on her. She hates it when I do that, but she didn’t want me drumming,” he said, shrugging at the older doctor.

                “She’ll forgive you, she always does.”

                They went through the door and Grimmjow managed to wedge a foot before it closed completely, watching them walk back downstairs and going over what he’d just heard and seen in his mind. He’d been right. The kid was coming apart at the seams. Maybe he’d see what Shinji and Renji thought since they’d been at the interview with him. He shook his head. This whole thing was giving him a headache. Then he grinned. He liked guys, though, and blushed when he was talking about Grimmjow. That was a damn good sign if he ever saw one.


	3. Falling to Pieces

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited and re-uploaded 5-15

                The club was busy upstairs as Grimmjow and Nel made their way through. The club was huge and always crowded on the weekends. Techno music thrummed through the floor and Grimmjow kept his hips from swaying. He loved to dance, but he had his mind on other things. Tonight he was going to see about this group that Nel was involved in. He had to admit, he was intrigued when Shinji had called him directly asking if he could talk Nel into at least trying to get involved in something that was huge in his life. At first the thought of his sister in bondage made him angry….until Shinji said something that made him stop all thinking like that.

                “Fuck, man, I don’t wanna have her in bondage, I want her to put me in chains, dude. I’m looking for a strong woman to take over my life…” he said and Grimmjow heard the barely contained excitement in his voice. “She’s sexy as sin, dude, I know she’s your sister, but man, I need a woman like her. She’s got everything I need, and she seems like the type that can handle me easy. I’m a fuckin’ masochist man.”

                Grimmjow at first didn’t know what to think. This guy was famous, like really famous, and as far as he knew, upstanding. He had many openly publicized relationships with men and women in the papers, and was a huge supporter of the LGBTQ community. But this… So, Grimmjow had gone to Nel and said that if she wanted to be with the guy, she should give him a chance and at least look into what he wanted. She agreed, at first not liking the idea that her new boyfriend wanted her to tie him up…

                So, they were walking through Los Noches toward the bar. They came up and there was a huge man standing behind it, eye patch over one eye and spiky black hair. He had to be six and a half foot easy with massive shoulders. The bartender seemed to ignore him, going about his work. Grimmjow nodded to him.

                “Here for the Dangai,” he said to him. The man glanced at them.

                “Name?” he asked in a gruff tone.

                “Grimmjow and Nel,” he said, hoping that they were expected. They should have been.

                He nodded and motioned to the door behind him. Grimmjow and Nel opened it and headed down a set of dimly lit stairs. Once at the bottom they heard music, but it was different down here. They couldn’t hear the techno from the club upstairs anymore, now they just heard the industrial metal that was pumping through this area. They opened a door and blinked. The scene was…different.

                At various points in the room were tables and chairs, all with a light in the center. A large, fully stocked bar graced the back. Along one wall was a rack filled with all sorts of equipment. Chains, ropes, handcuffs, all sorts of things. Around the room, there were people in various shades of undress. Some wore casual clothes, some wore leather and metal, and others were nearly naked and on the floor below the tables. Grimmjow was shaken out of his gazing as he heard a voice.

                “Nel!” Shinji said and hugged her close. “You came! A little later than I thought,” he said, sounding disappointed. Soon enough, a red headed man in _very_ tight leather pants and a leather vest came up next to him with a drink in hand.

                Nel had told Grimmjow that Renji and Shinji had grown up together and knew each other very well, and Grimmjow had heard other stories about the fiery red headed actor on his own. Rumors abounded about what a slut he was, going out with different women every night, it seemed. However, he had yet to hear he was into this type of thing.

                “Nel, this is Renji Abarai, I told you he was on the show we filmed today along with that kid,” he said with a grin.

                Renji grinned at them. “Damn, don’t mention that brat, makes me fuckin’ hard, and I still don’t have a sub for tonight.”

                Nel blushed. “You mean Dr. Kurosaki? We just saw him.”

                Shinji looked at her with a frown. “What in the world for? How do you know him?”

                “He just operated on one of my best friends, Orihime. Removed an inoperable brain tumor last week. He’s a little different though,” Nel said with a smile. “Orihime seems to have a crush on him.”

                Grimmjow snorted and she turned to stare at him. “Sorry, sis, but hate to break it ta her, but he don’t go that way.”

                Nel frowned. “Oh, God, how did you find out he’s gay?”

                “Overheard it, accidently on purpose. And he’s an uke too,” he said with a grin. “Heard him tell his doctor buddy that this other guy was ‘too girly’. Looks like he wants a strong boy to keep him in place.”

                Renji moaned at the thought. “Fuck…man, I didn’t need to know that, now I want the fuckin’ brat tied up like a Christmas present for me.”

                Grimmjow cocked an eyebrow. “Ya got a thing for him?”

                “Hell yes, man, you saw that boy. He could pass for like sixteen, and so pretty all over,” he said, looking up thoughtfully. Then he saw the scowl on his face. “Hey, looks like I ain’t tha only one. Well, ya hang out here, and you’ll learn I like to share.”

                Then, pale white hands encircled Renji’s waist, surprising him, and he turned to see a shorter man with absolutely white hair and skin wink a set of the most striking black and gold eyes he’d ever seen.

                Shinji snickered. “Renji, Grimmjow, Nel, meet my friend Shiro, Ren, he’s the switch I told ya about.”

                Renji grinned. “You in the mood to be manhandled, or do that manhandling tonight?”

                Shiro shrugged, letting him go. “Don’t matter much, as long as I either fuck or get fucked, I’m good.”

                Shiro’s eyes were on Grimmjow. “Yer new round here.”

                Grimmjow nodded. “My sis is being turned Domme by Shinji over there, at least he wants her to.”

                Shiro nodded, then came up and brushed a hand across the taller man’s chest. “Hum you want to let me and Renji over there introduce you to our way of doing things?”

                Grimmjow didn’t even realize he was nodding until he felt his hand being yanked and was roughly tugged out of the main room into a smaller one. He heard the click and lock of the door and then a light came on, flooding it with soft light.

                He turned around to find Shiro had already stripped himself naked and was grabbing something out of a drawer beside him. He clicked it onto his throat and Grimmjow saw it was a collar with d rings at four points around it. He looked over to see Renji had gotten rid of the vest. He was eying the perfectly white skinned creature before him hungrily. Grimmjow wasn’t sure what to do.

                “Grimm, relax. I like this shit, okay?” Shiro said. He looked at Renji. “Crop, nothing on the arms or chest, though, gotta work this week and I welt easy. Lots on the thighs, I like to remember it all week when I’m at work. Use the leash, and tie my hands to the back of the collar. No ballgags, I don’t like tha’ shit,” he said reaching in the drawer and Grimmjow realized the guy was hard already and he slipped a cock ring onto him, moaning at the stimulation. “When I’m sub, I’m a painslut, so give it to me all ya want, Ren, unless ya want me to tell everyone that yer a pussy.”

                Renji grinned, watching the guy put his arms behind him and twist them behind his back in practiced fashion. Renji set to work, snapping cuffs to match the collar and winding a rope up between the cuffs and the collar, pulling it tight.

                “Who am I, slut?” Renji asked in his ear.

                “Master,” Shiro moaned. “Please master, I’ve been bad…punish me…”

                Grimmjow blinked, the change was immediate, like Shiro had shifted into another person. Renji looked up, frowning at Grimmjow’s confusion.

                “Ah, hey, he’s in scene, so he’s going to play it, okay? Strip off that tight fuckin’ shirt and grab those riding crops,” Renji said nodding watching as the man stripped the thin cotton hiding his broad, muscled chest from view and grabbed the implements to hand one to Renji.

                “Oh, master,” Shiro purred seeing Renji slapping his crop on his palm. “Master, I’m such a bad boy, I was looking at someone else and wanted to be fucked by him…”

                Renji arched a brow, looking at Grimmjow with a grin. “Ya mean him?”

                Shiro grinned wickedly, looking at Grimmjow with a hooded gaze. “Yes, Master,” he purred. “I want him…”

                “Then punishment shall be had, on yer knees, slut,” he said, and Shiro complied, scooting up and sitting on his knees.

                Renji shoved him over until his face was planted into the bed, his ass in the air. He moaned softly into the fabric. Renji smacked the crop immediately across the left then right cheek, getting a guttural groan out of the white skinned man. Grimmjow was fascinated as brilliant red blossomed on the pale flesh. Renji grinned, then reached into the drawer and drew out a bottle of clear lube and a plug. He twisted the back and Grimmjow heard a buzzing sound. Renji slathered it with the lube then shoved it into the albino without a warning, causing him to buck backward into him rather violently with a moan.

                “Stay still,” he growled. “Don’t fuckin’ move.”

                He was met with a whimper from Shiro, but Grimmjow saw the ecstacy in his face. He moaned and shivered as the thing buzzed against him. “Oh Master, I’m so bad, I wanna cum for him...”

                Renji rewarded the comment with a series of rapid swats across his inner thighs, getting yelps of surprise and pained pleasure from him. Grimmjow was fascinated, taking his crop and running it under the man’s chin and lifting his dark eyes to look at him. Grimmjow swallowed as he licked his lips at him and then he was attacking the pale man’s mouth. He found himself, surprisingly, dominated in the kiss, but it didn’t bother him. He liked the force that the smaller man was putting behind it.

                Renji swatted across the base of the plug, getting a loud moan out of him. Grimmjow swallowed the sound, still latched to his mouth. Before long, he was ghosting his hands over the pale flesh, feeling welts rising as Renji striped his back with the crop. The harder he hit him, the more passionate the kiss got.

                “You are such a slut!” Renji announced, yanking the plug from his ass. A moan of absolute pleasure emitted from the pale man at the pain from the rough removal. “You want his cock in you?”

                “Yes, master! I want him in me while you punish me!” he announced.

                Grimmjow didn’t need to be told twice, his pants were dropped, and he realized somehow, Renji had shucked his own tight leather. He grinned as he swatted the pale sub again on the ass as Grimmjow moved behind him on the bed.

                “Ride him like the slut you are,” Renji said, eyes narrowed at him. Shiro grinned, grabbing the lube, then glanced at Grimmjow, slipping from scene.

                “I don’t like condoms, you better fuckin’ be clean, blue bastard,” he growled, to which Grimmjow could only nod as lube slick hands hovered over his straining erection.

Then those slick hands engulfed him and he moaned, only to moan louder as he was engulfed in tight, encompassing heat that made his eyes open wide. Shiro was planted on him where he’d sat on his knees, and was grinding back into him harshly, panting as he did so. Grimmjow managed to pull his legs out and soon had the writhing pale man on his lap gyrating madly. It was all he could do to keep from blowing within the first minute.

“Look at you, slutting on another man besides yer master,” Renji said, and Shiro arched against Grimmjow, spreading his legs wide so Renji could see the cock working in and out of him.

“Oh, master, punish me for it…I’m such a naughty slut,” he moaned, his head lolling back on Grimmjow’s shoulder.

Renji proceeded to lay a blistering set of swats on the inside of his pale thighs, and Grimmjow felt him tighten painfully as he tried to orgasm but the cock ring kept him from going. He felt his own eyes cross and held on. When Renji was done he climbed onto the bed and grinned.

“Suck me off while he plows you, slut,” Renji growled.

Shiro grinned, and leaned forward, Grimmjow slipping out and scrambling to his knees behind the bound man. He slammed back into him getting a low moan as he took Renji, to Grimmjow’s surprise, all the way down to the root, nose buried in soft red curls. Renji threw his head back.

“Fuck, you are good at that, Shiro…” he groaned.

Before long Renji was bucking his hip into the wet mouth and shooting his load down his throat. The sight sent Grimmjow off finally and he thrust hard into the pliant body. Shiro leaned back to kneel up as Grimmjow came and Renji pulled off the cockring and whispered, “Cum,” in his ear. At the word, the body around him tensed and the pale man shot his load onto the bed below them with a loud moan that was somewhere between Renji and Grimmjow’s names.

Renji smiled and untied the rope, then removed the cuffs as he came down off the high, slipping into subspace bliss for a few minutes. Grimmjow watched, fascinated. He’d never seen anything like it, to be honest. He sat down on the opposite side of the pale man. Renji pulled him close and he looked plainly dazed. Grimmjow mimicked Renji’s motions, brushing a hand over Shiro’s white head. After a while, Shiro came around and grinned.

“Man, I want to be fucked, I’ll come ta ya two,” he muttered, kissing Renji’s cheek and winking at Grimmjow.

After they were showered and clothed, they headed back into the main room to find a rather amusing sight for Grimmjow. His sister was seated at a table, legs demurely crossed, a heavy paddle in her lap. Shinji was tethered, still clothed except for his shirt, at the base of chair she was sitting in. He looked completely blissed out, eyes half lidded and a foggy look to his face as he sat beside her, head resting against her thigh.

“I see you’re enjoying yourself…” Grimmjow said, eyeing his sister.

She flinched and blushed. “I didn’t think I would, but it makes him so happy…I may be able to get into this…”

Grimmjow snickered. “I knew there was a sadistic bitch hiding behind that innocent smile.”

She grinned at him and shook her head, hearing a whimper. She looked down. “Mistress,” Shinji mewled. “Take me home…I wanna…”

She grabbed his collar and yanked him up into her lap with a swift move and swatted his ass with the paddle hard enough to leave a resounding crack in the air. Shinji stiffened and moaned low in his throat.

“That was a bad pet,” she said softly. “I’ll take you home and finish this. I told you not to talk.”

Shinji turned back, a smirk on his lips as he whispered. “Yes, Mistress.”

They were gone in a minute, leaving Grimmjow to sit down with the other two men. He’d always thought it would be awkward after doing something like a threesome…but somehow he felt at ease. And to think, he was sitting in the middle of a room where there were plenty showing off their “pets”. It was…interesting.

Shiro sipped his drink, a scotch on the rocks and frowned at the completely distant Grimmjow. “Man, I know my ass is hot, but did it shock ya into a coma?”

Renji arched a red brow at him.

“Nah, was thinking about that doctor and what I saw today,” he said, frowning.

“Whatcha mean?” Shiro asked, confused.

So, between Renji and Grimmjow they discussed the recent events, starting with meeting the young doctor after surgery and ending with the conversation he’d overheard. Renji nodded, then told them about the interview and what Shinji had said about it. Shiro rolled his eyes.

“So ya both think he’s hot. And ya both think he’s sub material. And ya think he needs to let go. Go get his ass and drag him home, teach him to let go,” Shiro said with a huff. “Ain’t that hard, man. First time’s hard, was for me when I went to switching. I’m a sadistic bastard when I dom, and I’m fuckin’ masochistic when I sub. I like it both ways, I found. Even after being in the life from like fifteen, I still was amazed when I felt the release of control and it was the best fuckin’ thing ever.”

Renji sighed. “You know, it is odd, we just met, and we already had a scene. Think we’re rushing?”

“Fuck if I know, I don’t get half a what you two are talking about,” Grimmjow said. “But that was a fine fuck.”

Shiro grinned. “Hum, hum. You know I’ve always wanted a permanent group. Maybe we could train them both, eh, Renji? You seem to know the community pretty well.”

Renji nodded. “Been around about six years now. Since I was about twenty.”

“Ever have a permanent group? Or a forever pet?” he asked smirking.

“Nah, been looking for a sub for a while, but just haven’t found one that got my interest…then I get a fuckin’ boner for a guy that ain’t even in the community and can’t think about anyone else,” he said with a sigh. “I just want to take him and tie him up and lick him from head to toe he’s so fuckin’ tasty lookin…”

Grimmjow blinked. “You’re serious aren’t, ya? I mean, you’d actually do just that?”

“Bet yer fuckin’ sack I would. I’ve got a lickin’ fetish,” he said with a grin. “Most my toys have liked the treatment.”

“So what kinda stuff do you, you know do? I thought it was just ropes and shit, and whipping…” Grimmjow said.

Shiro smirked. “Fuck, dude, yer so vanilla it hurts.”

“Vanilla?” he asked, frowning.

“Yeah, Vanillas or ‘Nillas as we sometimes say, are those that like plain, or vanilla, sex. Those not in our community or lifestyle. But we’ll fix ya pretty quick, blueboy.”

“Okay, well I’m heading to the hospital tomorrow to see Orihime, so I’ll see if I can’t talk to the kid tomorrow,” he said with a smile at his two new friends. He had a feeling he was going to like this.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

It was another week before Grimmjow managed to come across the young doctor. He was standing in the room when he entered and he saw him tense the second he entered the room with his sister and Orihime. Her mom was there too, so he thought maybe that was the reason he was so out of sorts.

“Okay, so there will be a follow up appointment with me in six weeks, and make sure to keep your appointments with the oncologists. We have to make sure we don’t have any secondary tumors, but should that happen, it is nowhere near as difficult to go back in and remove them since we’ve already gone in once. Be careful of the area of your head where the skull fragment was removed, and keep on light duty for the next six weeks until I completely clear you post-surgery,” he spoke with his eyes never leaving the chart, tapping now and then. When he did look up, his eye had a tic every now and then.

Everyone seemed relieved that Orihime was going home except Grimmjow who kept his eye on the young doctor. He seemed more frazzeled. He was exuding the stress. So as the girls talked he moved over to him and tapped the clipboard. He looked up into his blue eyes and looked like a deer in headlights.

“Um, yeah, can I help you with something? Grimmjow was your name, right?” he said, the tic in his eye getting worse as he spoke.

“You okay, doc? I mean, you’re lookin’ rough around the edges,” he said, concern etched into his normally smirking face.

The doctor was surprised but nodded. “Yeah, just…I seem to have gotten more attention than I wanted after that interview I did on Shinji’s show.”

He turned and headed out of the room. Grimmjow stepped out after him and watched as a girl nearly ran right into him. She was probably eighteen, if that.

“Doctor!” she said with a grin. “You’re so cute, are you single? I really want to take you out…”

Ichigo stepped back from her, crossing his arms tightly over his chest and clutching the clipboard so hard his fingers were turning white. This was terrible. Another one. “Dr. Ikkaku!” he practically screeched. A tall, thick bald man came around the corner rolling his eyes and grabbed the girl by the arm and shuffled her off the floor muttering about no one allowed on the floor except family and friends of the patients and she needed to leave immediately.

A second later a woman, no a man, with bobbed black hair came around to stand beside Ichigo. “Hey, another one, Ichi?   This is getting ridiculous, I mean, you’re very beautiful and all, not as beautiful as I am, but they really should let up.”

Grimmjow wandered over and looked at the dark haired nurse. He had feathers in his eyebrow and had a light sheen of natural looking make up. “Who was that, doc?”

Ichigo just stared, hands clenching at his side and turned and walked off, headed toward the stairwell again. The male nurse beside him sighed.

“If we’d known doing that interview was going to incite the female population, and half the male, of Karakura, I’d have never pushed him to go ahead with it…” he muttered.

“What’s going on, anyway?” Grimmjow asked, turning to him. His name badge read Yumichika.

“Oh, seems that the terms ‘single’, ‘cute’, ‘doctor’ and ‘under twenty five’ mean that Ichigo is being assailed by young women, and a few young men, about dates. The poor thing is beside himself over the last week. And he doesn’t even get the really bad letters and calls…” he said, sighing. “Of course, maybe it had to do with him being on the same show as a young heartthrob like Abarai.” Grimmjow smirked as the man blushed and his eyes got faraway looking. Someone had a crush on the red-head.

Grimmjow nodded, understanding completely. “Obsessive fans, and he’s not even an actual celebrity.”

Just then, the bald doctor walked up. “Tossed her ass back into the mass that’s out front. Dammit, this is getting worse, not better. I think Ichi’s gonna blow a gasket if we can’t get them to leave him the fuck alone,” he grumbled. He looked up and smiled at Grimmjow. “Anyway, I’m off stalker duty, Dr. Urahara is coming down.”

“Stalker duty?” Grimmjow said with a quirked brow at the doctor.

“Yeah, what we lovingly call whoever is standing in shouting distance of Dr. Kurosaki in case he gets assaulted by a rabid fan,” he said with a snort.

Grimmjow nodded and headed back to Orihime’s room. She was almost done with paperwork and he went to the window and looked down. They were seven floors up, but he grinned as he saw a distinct head of orange hair standing a floor or two below. He was standing up against the tall barrier around the fountain that was in the side yard of the hospital. Relatively private area, it was only accessible from the inside, and he glanced around the courtyard to see no one around. Grimmjow figured he’d needed some time alone.

A figure in pink scrubs came out the door and lit a cigarette near where he stood, but he seemed oblivious. What happened next, though, shocked Grimmjow. The person, he couldn’t tell if it was male or female from this distance, moved closer then, their hand shot out and grabbed the young doctor, and pulled him close. At first, Grimmjow thought maybe he’d found a lover finally but then he slumped bonelessly into the other figure’s arms, who quickly gathered him up and dashed through one of the further doors.

“The fuck!” Grimmjow muttered and turned and ran out of the room to the stairs to haul ass down there and catch whoever it was. Nel and the Inoues stared after him confused as he shot out of the room. By the time he got to the first floor, he caught a glimpse of the pink scrubs and a tuft of orange headed across the foyer, most people not paying attention. The guy, he could see now, had taken the white coat off Ichigo and tossed a blanket on him. Ichigo was sitting slumped in a wheelchair as the guy pushed him forward, not looking like he was kidnapping a doctor right out of the hospital at all.

“Hey, you, stop right fucking there!” Grimmjow yelled, locking eyes with the man, who just grinned and took off with the chair in a sprint.

Grimmjow was hot on his heels, but there was a van parked with open doors at the curb, and the guy picked up the orange headed doctor and leaped into the van, the door slamming shut, and tires squealing. Grimmjow cursed because there were no plates on the vehicle. The security guard had come out just then and asked what happened.

“Fucker…kidnapped…the doctor…” he said huffing, his dash down the stairs getting to him as the adrenaline bled off.

“What doctor?” the security officer said, eyes wide.

“Ichigo…Kurosaki…” he huffed. The security guard was on the phone with 911 already, and he realized others had appeared out there, and someone led him back into the hospital, leading him to a rather lush conference room. Eventually, police came and questioned him, and finally, the ash blond doctor and a dark haired doctor came into the room. Grimmjow looked up from the coke he was sipping.

“Dr. Urahara, this is Dr. Isshin, Dr. Kurosaki’s father, we wanted to ask you about what you saw? I know you’ve talked to the police…”

Grimmjow nodded. “Happy to help get ‘im back,” he said softly. He retold the story from beginning to end, not leaving out anything that could help them, a description of the man in the pink scrubs and the van he’d jumped into, which contained accomplices, obviously.

“Do you know anything? Have they called?” Grimmjow asked when he was done.

Isshin shook his head. “Nothing yet, we don’t know if it was for ransom or one of the stalkers. But I think the fact he and I are both successful doctors, a ransom demand should be coming soon.”

The door boomed open and Isshin was handed a phone. He snapped it to his ear and spoke quickly.

“Isshin Kurosaki.” A long pause. “I can’t get that kind of money in an hour!” he exclaimed. “What? No, please give me at least six hours!” Another pause. “Don’t touch his hands, whatever you do, don’t touch his hands, that’s his life.” Isshin’s eyes were already collecting tears at the corners. “Please, don’t hurt him, I’ll get the money.” Another long pause. “I’ll be there as soon as I can get the money, please don’t…I know…but I can’t get it within an hour…okay…” He slapped the phone closed and looked in the other room. The guy shook his head. No trace but they’d recorded the call.

Isshin swallowed, eyes meeting Urahara’s and then flicking to Grimmjow’s. “They want a ransom of 20 million in an hour. If I don’t drop it off in an hour, they said they’ll start breaking bones…one for every hour we’re late. There’s no way I can gather that much in an hour, Kisuke!”

Urahara patted him. “Well we’re gonna try. Come on.”


	4. Comfort WIthin the Pain

His first thought was that he had a headache. His second thought was he was unusually calm since he thought he remembered someone grabbing him and stabbing him with a hypodermic needle. He blinked wearily to see he was in a large open room that seemed to be a basement. It seemed somewhat damp and he figured that it would be colder, but it was actually pretty warm. He pulled his arms up and realized that they were securely tied in front of him, his arms wrapped from elbow to wrist with ropes. It wasn't tight, but it was definitely strong. He was thankful that his hands weren't tied in any way. His legs, though, were painfully contorted and roped together from ankle almost to his hips, ropes biting into his legs painfully and his toes felt numb. Whoever had tied him didn't want him getting away. Strangely, the tight roping would ensure less chance of rope burn on his body since they were spread across the entirety of his arms and legs. He jerked his bound legs experimentally and heard a clink. Chained the wall from the ankle, he thought.

He was wearing his green scrubs from the day, but he was in his sock feet, his shoes gone. He felt the relative headiness of being drugged, and there was a soft gag in his mouth. It was too tight to dislodge but it was soft and loose enough so that it didn't cut into his mouth. He started when he heard a noise and saw feet coming down a set of stairs to the right.

"Ah, the doc's awake," a playful sounding voice said. He leaned over and he found himself staring at a very tall dark haired man with a bandana covering one eye. It wasn't the blonde man in pink scrubs that had snagged him from the hospital. "You have a nice nap, you pretty little thing?"

Ichigo scowled at him; of course he couldn't say anything. He grinned showing a very wide and disconcerting display of teeth. "See, I'm under instructions to make sure that you are punished for your father's laziness. But I'm forbidden to do anything to your lovely hands."

He had moved in front of him and kneeled, staring his one eye into Ichigo's brown ones. "You're really a sweet thing." He ran his hands up and down his bound arms. A shiver went through him.

"It's been an hour, so we have to punish you for your father's laziness. So what bone will I break?" he asked, running hands down his thighs and his legs. "Maybe a rib?" he poked harshly into his side. "Nah, too close to the organs and we can't have you dying. Not yet. Maybe…ah, a toe."

He turned to stare at the man as he yanked the white sock from his foot and ran fingers over his toes before he took his smallest in his hand and yanked it to the side. He grunted into the gag, eyes watering at the sudden sting of pain. The dark haired man smiled. "Only the littlest piggy this time. But if the boss doesn't get yer pop's money soon, I'll come break something bigger."

Ichigo stared dumbly at the weird angle the toe was bent at. He supposed it wasn't that bad. His mind went through the treatments and possible healing time as well as any chance of infection. It felt like a clean break, but it had to be put back into place or healing wouldn't occur. He wondered what had possessed these people to kidnap him. He supposed the simple answer was money. But he was confused at the moment because he should really be freaking out since he was bound and gagged. Somehow he wasn't. Instead he still felt…comfortable.

After a while he heard muttering discussions at the stairs. It wasn't enough to make anything out, but he heard his name and "doesn't think we're serious" amid the words. Then there was footsteps coming down the stairs again. He looked up to see the black haired man with the covered eye.

"I though ya were 'sposta be some sorta spaz, but yer not bothered by this at all," he observed, calmly. "Anyway, yer pop doesn't seem _motivated_ enough to get us what we want. So he's gonna need some motivation. So, just try not to scream too fuckin' much, and then smile for tha camera."

Now he did get a little nervous. He was defenseless completely. It wasn't like he was unused to getting hit. It happened an awful lot when he was in school, but he did like to be able to protect himself from damage when he could. Well, damage to his hands, anyway. He'd had his share of broken bones from fights, but he refused to punch anyone, leading with his unsteady feet, which failed miserably. He protected his head and his hands at all costs. And now both were exposed as a punch landed across his jawline, sending blood spraying from a busted lip.

When he was done with him, he had blood dripping from his face, and he knew that he was going to have one black eye, and his jaw was heavily bruised. His scrub top was torn open to reveal purple bruising rising over his ribcage and belly, and he was pretty sure that he had at least three broken ribs if he didn't miss his guess. He was panting and groaning against the gag by then, his breath unsteady.

"Well, there, you make a pretty mess, time to update yer pop," he said, grinning, snapping pictures on a phone quickly, then going back upstairs absorbed in the phone, no doubt sending his father the pictures of his beaten state. "Now, since yer pop is not bothered by broken bones, maybe this will have a visible impact."

He watched him leave up the stairs and sighed. He was assessing any bruising and internal damage. So far, the ribs were the limit. He'd have a painful recovery, but he could handle it. Despite the pain coursing through his ribcage, though, the ropes made him feel comfortable. Time passed, and he nearly dozed off in the odd position.

After a while, steps on the stairs woke him up and he looked up to see the one eyed raven and the blond from the hospital. They were carrying two heavy bags between them. He watched as they sat them on a table and started taking out wads of cash. He knew his dad had come through with the ransom money. He watched as they checked every stack, assuming they were smart enough to check for sequential bills and counterfeit bills provided for them.

"Fuck, Nnoitra, did ya see his face? Priceless!" the blond said, receiving a grin in return.

"Heh, I thought he was going to cry when we didn't hand over his pretty boy, man, Ilfort, this is the best fuckin' idea you ever came up with," he said snickering.

"So why didn't you hand him over? I mean, the fuck we gonna do with 'im anyway?" Ilfort asked, looking over where Ichigo sat silently watching them.

Nnoitra grinned. "I'm using him to pay our debts off, dumbshit. We're takin' the money and him and we're getting the fuck outta the goddamned mess we're in. Figure we'll be in the clear with giving that bastard fifteen million and the boy, and then we're off to the fuckin' Bahamas for the rest of our days."

Ilfort nodded. "He on his way to pick up?"

"Yup, he'll be here in the hour. Pull out five million and set it aside. I'll head up and wait for him," Nnoitra said with a grin.

The blond looked over at Ichigo with a sigh and shook his head. "Hey, kid, really sorry about this shit. But we're in too fuckin' deep, got no choice or we're both gonna have a slit throat. You don't live long when you owe Sasoke Aizen."

Ichigo sighed. He understood self-preservation. But he had to get out of this, and that meant putting all of those IQ points to use. The problem was…he was a genius…but not about this kind of thing. But maybe if he thought like he would think in surgery…

His musing was broken by a huge dark skinned man walking over to him and staring down, while a brunette man walked to where the bag of money sat.

"Buying your way out, huh, boys?" he asked, looking at the blond and then up to the raven that followed them down the stairs. "What am I supposed to do with a kid like that?"

"His name is Doctor Ichigo Kurosaki, that twenty three year old neurosurgeon that has been on the news lately. We got money outta his dad, that fifteen million to cover the debts, and figured that you could use him as leverage or something to cover our exit from the organization," Ilfort said, his speech waxing somewhat more proper around the tall brunette.

The brunette came and stood over him, thinking. "Hrm, Dr. Kurosaki, huh? Well, doctor, seems like you belong to me now, my name is Sasoke Aizen. What I use you for has yet to be determined, boy. Personal medic is the obvious, but what about the other entertainment value you might have? Such a pretty little thing…"

Ichigo tensed as he tilted his head by his chin and stared into his eyes. His eye started to twitch as the anxiety and stress began to mount. His heart beat shot up and he could hear it rushing through his ears madly. His mind was spinning though, calculating chances of escape given variables that his mind came up with. The first obvious chance of escape was when they unshackled him, but without the ropes being removed, that didn't help much. Less than one percent. Untying his legs, he would have perhaps a fifteen percent chance taking into account the fact his legs were numb and his uncoordinated nature. The chance increased to perhaps twenty percent once he was on his feet and walking.

He didn't get to complete his assessment of escape as the large dark man unhooked the chain at his ankle and hefted him up in his arms. Well, that stripped chances down to nearly zero. He struggled a little but found that the ropes were still quite tight. He was dropped into a limo's back seat and he glanced around him. He had no idea who this Aizen person was, but it seemed he was into some sort of illegal enterprise. The man got into the car and the large man seemed to be the driver.

The limo took off and he watched the brunette, who seemed to be watching him right back. He wore a three piece black pinstripe suit with a white shirt and red tie. Ichigo sighed and turned away, but started when he felt his hands on his waist. He looked to see he was sitting beside him now, and with one move shoved him over his lap, head hanging down and legs dangling. He gasped at the pressure in his bruised and broken ribs, and at the noise, the man spread his legs out, one thigh under this hips, the other sitting under his chest. It was still uncomfortable but at least it wasn't shooting pain through him. He felt one hand rest on his back between his shoulders and the other rested on the small of his back.

"You know, you are perhaps the sweetest parting gift I've ever gotten. I'm sure they thought it would save their lives. Of course it didn't. They've been killed by now, and their small stash of money found and added to mine. I don't let people out once they're in. And the same will be true for you, little one," he said, his hand tracing down the mound of his buttocks slowly, causing him to flinch. "Such a sensitive little thing…twenty three they said you were. I'm surprised; you look more like fourteen, which is the type I prefer."

Ichigo swallowed. Great, not only was the guy some sort of criminal, he was also a pervert and child molester. Wonderful. He wondered if he was going to get out of this with anything intact. He stared down at his arms to his hands. As long as he didn't touch his hands, he really didn't care what happened to the rest of him. He grunted though when hands that were quite cold slipped under the band of his boxers to slide against his skin. As humiliating as this was, there was some unusual comfort in it. He couldn't understand it. He couldn't fight, so he didn't stress about it. No anxiety was in his blood, only a strange sensation of acceptance. In fact, he was getting lost in it. He sighed deeply and his head drooped.

"Oh, what is it, pretty?" the voice above him purred and he felt the gag come untied and watched the black fabric drop to the floor under his hanging head.

"Don't do anything to my hands," he said quietly. "Do whatever you want, just…just don't hurt my hands…"

Aizen smiled at the tremble in his voice. "Oh? Why is it that your hands are worth giving your whole body to me?"

"Without my hands, I will lose who I am completely. I'll lose my reason to live if I lose the ability to perform surgery," he said honestly. "So please, don't do anything to damage the nerves or the dexterity of my hands."

There was a snicker above him as his hand traveled down the curve of his buttocks and fingers forced themselves between the globes of flesh to settle on his protected entrance, rubbing circles around the ring of muscles. "Then I make this promise, you submit to whatever I request of you, and I will ensure that you will never lose that ability. Resist me, and I will personally take a sledge hammer to both of your precious hands."

Ichigo swallowed. "I won't resist you." There was no choice in the matter. No matter the humiliation or disgust of what was happening, he wouldn't, couldn't, risk his hands. To lose his hands and the ability to perform surgery would end his life. There was nothing else for it. He would die before living without his obsession.

He laid his head down against the leg as he continued to use his hands to pet and rub against his body. He shivered at the feeling of someone touching him in those places, and winced in pain as he forced several of his fingers into him. He closed his eyes and imagined he was anywhere but here, but it was growing harder to concentrate with the obvious erection pressing into his side. He'd made a deal with the devil, it seemed, and he would end up paying the price before this was over.

-Doctor's Training-

"What do you mean he wasn't there?" Grimmjow woke from his snooze with a start.

The money had been gathered hurriedly after a series of pictures showing that they had been beating Ichigo came through. Not that they hadn't been trying before. But now it was hours later and finally Urahara had taken a call. He put the phone down and looked up as a fox faced man with silver hair entered the room. He was wearing a three piece suit, no doubt form the authorities.

"Things have gotten more complicated. We've found two people shot at a location we are relatively certain is where Ichigo was being held. One of them is in critical condition right now, and we may lose him still, but he's the only link we have to what happened to Dr. Kurosaki. We can only hope now," he said sighing.

Gin Ichimaru really hated these cases. Kidnappers wanting ransom, then not turning over the person. Of course, both those in the shooting had been affiliated with Aizen's gang. So that meant that the only reasonable place the kid had gone was with Aizen. And that made things very complicated. Aizen was a force to be reckoned with in the community. He ran anything illegal and yet maintained his above board persona as one of the benefactors of the city. This made him untouchable by Gin and his crew. He sighed. He hoped that this would be over by now, but now it was just starting.

Grimmjow pulled out a cellphone and found the name he was looking for. If he remembered correctly, Shiro's "job" had something to do with the seedy underbelly of the city.

"Yo, Blue, whatsup?" came the response. He heard music in the background.

"Hey, get yer ass to the hospital, bring Red, I'm guessing you two are heading to the back by now?" he said.

Shiro growled. "Fuck, dude, we…wait, this about that doctor? The one ya wanna get as ya sub so bad with Red?"

"Yah, and I need yer help."

"Whatevs…I'll get Red."

He closed the phone and looked at Gin. "You don't think you can get him back if this Aizen has him, do you?"

The detective sighed. "Mah, ah doubt it."

"That's what I needed to know," he said, leaving the room, and some very confused people, behind him.

He waited for the flash of white and red and motioned them into one of the private waiting areas. "The doc, he's gone and got 'imself kidnapped, and the guys are in the morgue. They worked for Aizen."

Shiro's eyes widened. "Fuck, man, ya serious? Goddammit."

Renji looked surprised. "What?"

"Fuckin' Aizen is a bastard that runs most the underworld in town. I'm the fuckin' liason between his nasty ass and my boss, Old Man Yama of the Shinigami," Shiro said with a groan.

Grimmjow arched a brow. "Damn, thought you were into some shit, but that's heavy. They're all over the country, aren't they?"

Shiro nodded. "Yeah, only reason they ain't overrun Karakura is cuz of some truce with Aizen. He pays fuckin' well to keep us out. But that means I can get in and out of his place without a problem, I'm there most the fuckin' time. I got friends inside, including an undercover for Gin. I'll see if I can't get him out before Aizen's done with him."

Grimmjow sighed. "What does he want with him?"

"Fucker likes boys. And lucky for you two, looks like yer doctor looks like one. Now, come on, yer with me, so we can get in together. Don't fuckin' talk though. Not a peep. Yer goin in as my new crew." With that, they were off, headed through the night toward a large house on the outskirts of town.

Shiro adjusted his clothes and stepped out and Grimmjow thought he exuded dominance, complete opposite of how he'd acted in the scene they'd done together. He knocked on the door, and a guy with bright pink hair answered. They talked low and then were let in. As they entered, they heard Shiro talking.

"Sorry ta hear 'bout ya brother, what happened?"

The pink haired guy sighed. "Tryin' to leave. Thought some cash and a present for Aizen would get him out of it. Turns out he was wrong. He's dead, and Nnoitra is almost there. He might not make it through the night."

Shiro arched a fine brow. "Present? You mean that kid?"

The other guy nodded. "Yeah, Aizen just got back with him and left him in the master suite. Feel sorry for him, after all, was my brother that drug him into this mess."

"Szayel, any chance Aizen's gone now?" he said evenly.

"Yeah, he got a call out to north side…because…wait…you want to take the kid, don't you? You know what will happen if Aizen finds out you…" Szayel said with wide eyes.

Shiro grinned. "He's gonna fuck with one a'Yama's boys? Really?"

Szayel sighed. "Knock me out though, at least. That way he can't shoot me for this."

Before he even could take a breath after the statement, he was laid out on the floor unconscious. Shiro cracked his knuckles and looked up to his two shocked companions. "What? Ya think I got this job for being a good lay?"

They followed as they went through the silent mansion. There was a large set of double doors and Shiro shoved them open to enter the huge master suite. In the middle was a very big bed, and on it was the bound and gagged form of the doctor they were looking for. His arms were tied together in front of him, and his legs bound at the ankle. His clothes were half on and half off, the shirt torn, and his pants open and loose around his hips. He was on his back and looking at the ceiling.

Shiro moved around in front of him and he jumped as he locked eyes on the albino. "Hey strawberry boy, how's about we get outta here, eh? Blue and Red really wanna get ta know ya better, and yer pop's about to have an aneurism."

Ichigo stared, fascinated by the albino and his strange colored eyes. He realized that they looked strikingly similar, though. Odd, he thought, then he turned and he saw the blue haired man from the hospital and the read headed film star from the show. He frowned to see them there, but he guessed that explained why he was being untied by the white skinned fellow. Grimmjow removed the gag and he worked his mouth a bit.

"What…where did you guys come from?" he asked, his voice a little hoarse.

"Well, I saw the fucker take you off and tried to stop 'im. So I thought I'd try and help. Shiro here is a friend and happens to know some people," he said smiling.

He looked to Renji. "And where exactly do you fit in?"

Renji grinned. "I got a bet to win, but other than that, I wanted ta help."

"How much fuckin' rope did they use?" he muttered as he tossed aside the length that had been wrapped around his legs. Then he set to work on his arms. Before long he was standing on shaky legs and pulling the sting of his scrubs light around his waist again.

"He didn't do anything to ya, huh?" Grimmjow asked, frowning, noticing the action.

Ichigo shook his head. "No, you arrived before he had a chance to do more than molest me in the limo. Not my favorite experience, but certainly nothing to worry about."

Shiro nodded. "Let's get the fuck out before I gotta fight someone harder like fuckin' Yammi or Zommie. I like my face pretty."

Carefully, they started to leave and heard a thump and curse as Ichigo had managed to trip. Grimmjow started to say something sarcastic but decided for one the kid had been through enough, but for two, he knew he couldn't help it.

"Hey, lemme carry ya, I know ya got the stuff that messes with ya legs," he said, and without waiting had him hefted up into a bridal carry. Ichigo blinked and found himself actually enjoying being carried this time. He nodded and held onto him to make it easier for him to move with him. They stepped over the crumpled body of the pink haired man and out the door, taking off at a sprint for the car. Once inside, they were peeling out and headed toward the hospital.

Grimmjow sat in the back and looked over his injuries. "It's not serious. Three fractured ribs, at least two bruised, and I believe I have a cracked orbital bone…fractured nasal bone…" Ichigo said, touching the rapidly rising bruising on his cheek, then the top of his nose.

"Are you in much pain?" Renji asked, staring at him. He looked at Renji and realized he was rapidly drumming his fingers against his thighs with his other hand. He stared at the offending hand and put his other hand over it.

"Ah, not too much. I…I…" he started drumming again, his eye tic returning. "Ah, fuck," he muttered, biting down on his lip and rocking back in the seat, then rocking forward as far as the belt would reach. "Fuck," He said and stared at Grimmjow. "Hold me up against you and squeeze me. Now."

Grimmjow frowned, remembering he had seen the other doctor do that. "But the ribs, it's gonna hurt like a bitch…"

He shook his head. "Don't care, just do it…"

Grimmjow nodded and unbuckled his own seatbelt to scoot beside him and put his arms around him like the other doctor had when he watched on the roof. He pulled him back, trying to put the pressure on his shoulders rather than his ribcage. As soon as he did it, Ichigo relaxed back into him and his breathing slowed.

"Times like this I still wish I had that compression vest," he said with a sigh, but didn't make any move to push Grimmjow away.

"Are ya sure yer alright?" he asked.

"Great, just stay like that, it's high enough it isn't aggravating the broken ribs, they're lower," he said closing his eyes and enjoying the tightness and pressure.

"Renji," Grimmjow said. "Call ahead and tell Isshin that we've got him, okay?"

Renji nodded and proceeded to make the call. All the while, Grimmjow stared down into his arms. It was awkward because he had to shift his body away so the tightness in his jeans wouldn't be seen by either Ichigo or the two in the front seat.

"He said meet him in the ER with him," Renji said, snapping the phone closed and looking back at Grimmjow's distressed face. He then grinned like the cat that ate the canary, knowing full well what his new friend's…issue…was. Considering that he was having a bit of a reaction himself…


	5. Path of Discovery

Luckily, the ride was long enough, Grimmjow schooled his reactions. What in the fuck was going through his mind? Wait, it wasn't his mind that had a problem, he remembered. He really didn't realize how obsessed he was getting until he thought of another person doing something to the doctor leaning against him. He'd fallen into a rather comfortable silence in the car, and had glared daggers at Renji when he turned to leer at the kid. Renji got the idea and stopped looking in the back. Grimmjow was quickly coming to the conclusion that the red headed star was perhaps more suited to porn than traditional movies and TV because the guy really seemed like a pervert to the extreme. He wondered why he wasn't bothered by the fact.

When Shiro pulled into the covered area in front of the doors, he told them to go in and he'd park the car and meet them inside. Grimmjow gathered up the boy in his arms again, and headed in, followed by the red head, who seemed somewhat ashamed of himself since he didn't really look at Grimmjow. Well at least the red haired bastard had some form of control. As soon as they entered, there was a flurry of commotion as nurses and people came running. To Grimmjow's surprise it was Renji that stepped up then.

"Yo, back the fuck up, where's Doc Isshin? He don't need all ya fuckers on 'im right now," Renji announced, putting himself between Grimmjow and Ichigo and the people trying to get close to him.

A black haired nurse, Tatsuki came through, pushing away the other nurses who were worriedly standing there. "Get back to work, you, bring him through here," she demanded, and both men followed suit, disappearing just as Shiro entered. He took a few quick steps and joined them.

They came to an exam room with a door and followed her in, Grimmjow depositing him on the exam bed and stepping back as she left to go get his father, he assumed.

"What did you tell my dad?" Ichigo asked, shifting uncomfortably on the bed.

Renji shrugged. "Just we got you out and were headed to tha hospital with ya."

Ichigo nodded. "Can we leave out the whole guy was planning on raping me thing?" he said a bit nervously.

"Like hell, he's gonna know what that fucker wanted, whether you like it or not," Grimmjow answered, crossing his arms.

Ichigo blinked, unsure how to react to someone telling him what to do like that. Especially someone he barely knew. Long ago most the people around him had stopped "telling" him what to do. When everyone realized his intelligence, it was like they started to become scared to tell him to do anything. He'd been pleaded with, begged, everything, but rarely told. His father and Urahara were two exceptions, perhaps the only two he actually would listen to on most days. Everyone else was intimidated by him. Except this blue haired bastard before him.

"I don't want him to know that, it really isn't important to tell him," Ichigo huffed and turned away from him.

"And I said, he's gonna know. He's also gonna know that he was messin' with you before you got to that house," he said firmly.

Ichigo turned back, slightly red in the face. "Why does he need to know that, I'm fine!"

Shiro moved forward and sat down on the end of the bed by his feet and put a hand on his leg. "Look, I don't know you much, but I do know that this shit can't be ignored. Yeah, he didn't manage to get the deed done, but he came fuckin' close. I know the bastard, and the fact you were lucky doesn't take away the fact that he was gonna do something far worse than fondlin' you in the fuckin' car. I've fuckin' seen what is left when he's done. So, no yer not gonna hide it from the people that wanna help ya through it."

Ichigo glared at him briefly, refusing to hold his eyes for more than a moment. "I don't need help with anything, I never do. You guys should just go and leave me alone."

Shiro arched a brow at him. "Like hell. Ya don't get what yer involved in. We just fuckin' took you out of goddamned Aizen's house, under his fuckin' guards and cameras. Like it or not, kid we're all pretty well in deep shit. If we all don't have hits on us in the next week, it'll be a fuckin' miracle. Walkin' in there was fuckin' death warrant for us, dumb ass."

Ichigo turned now and glared at him. Dumb ass? What the hell? "Well, should have not done it then if it was that serious. I don't even _know_ you and have only met these two a couple times. Why the fuck do any of you care what happens to _me_?"

"For a smart guy, you sure are stupid," Renji muttered, rolling his eyes. "Look, we'll talk about that shit later. Meantime, you gotta understand that we're stuck right now."

"That's tha truth," a silver haired man with an eerie smile said from the doorway, getting everyone's attention. "Name's Detective Gin Ichimaru, and ya boys certainly know how ta get inta trouble."

Isshin came running into the room then, almost grabbing his son until his bucket hat wearing companion stopped him. "Ribs, he has broken ribs, Isshin…" Urahara growled out, leaving Isshin to hug his son's head close to him muttering about his precious son and the like, fussing over every bruise and cut, getting biting retorts from the younger Kurosaki.

Gin looked at the three other men, eyes settling on the albino. "I'm surprised wit ya Shiro. Ya helped someone without a promise a' goods."

Shiro rolled his eyes. "Whatevs, man, let's get the fuckin' debrief done so I can call Yama and find out how fucked I am."

Gin nodded and led the three men with him to another nearby room he'd sat up with a recorder. He had all three sit around the table and took the remaining spot watching them. He looked around at them, and then looked at the red head.

"Okay first, I need names, profession, address, phone number, and where you know Dr. Kurosaki from."

Renji nodded. "I'm Renji Abarai, and I'm a b class actor right now, and I met him on the Shinji show for the first time," he said, then going into his personal information. Gin nodded, and looked at Grimmjow.

"Grimmjow Jagerjaques, and I'm ah, in between jobs, live with my sister right now. I'm thinking of workin' on my college though. I was here when the doc did surgery on my sister's friend, Orhime," he responded and went into his own personal information. Gin then shot a look at Shiro.

Shiro grinned. "I never met doc until tonight."

"Well, how the hell are ya involved, Shiro?" Gin said, growing exasperated with him already.

"Ah, met these two lugs down at Las Noches in the Dangai."

Gin arched a brow and glanced at both of them. "Ah, I see. Shinji still hookin' ya up, huh?"

Shiro leaned forward leering at Gin. "Jealous? Just cuz you got me into subbing, don't act like yer still in mah world, foxy."

The comment got an arched brow from Renji and Grimmjow both, but they decided not to press the issue.

"Well, it doesn't take tha fact ya all four gotta be under protection," Gin said with a sigh. "Aizen is gonna flip on this, so I am gonna havta put all four a'ya somewhere until this gets dealt with. Don't want four more bodies in tha morgue," he said, his eyes opening a slight bit to reveal their brilliant blue depths. "I'm gonna find a safe house nearby, you three, stay here."

There was a long silence before Grimmjow looked at Shiro. "The fuck, dude? You're a criminal and that copper acts like yer his best buddy, and sounds like was a fuck buddy too."

Shrio grinned. "Yeah, Ginny and I go way back. My first dom back in tha day. Light play though. We split because he wasn't into that S and M as much as me. But ya, Yama's relationship is interesting wit tha cops. Yama leaves them alone, and they leave him alone. Aizen, though, he don't play by the rules."

Renji put his head down. "This is fucked up, man. Seeing that kid bound up…oh gods on high, took everything not to finish what that bastard started with him…"

Shiro patted him on the back. "Whaddaya expect? Bound and gagged is my favorite position after all, for my subs anyway. But, looks like you'll get yer chance with him. We'll share a safehouse."

Gin came back with an irate Isshin on his tail.

"No, he has to stay with me, he has certain issues that have to be taken into account! And he's head of neurosurgery!" Isshin said as the door shut.

"Doctor, I know all that, but ya want him dead?" he asked bluntly.

The dark haired doctor swallowed and shook his head. "No, but is there any other way? Can't you let him go home and set up officers…?"

Shiro answered from the other side of the table. "Man, if he does that, you and anyone else in that house is a target. Aizen is a sadistic fuck. He'll take yer son, make him watch as he slits yer throat, then burn the place to the ground so he hasn't got nothing to go back to."

Isshin glared at him for a moment. Then nodded. "Okay, but who'll be there with him?"

Gin shook his head. "Best if you know nothing, doctor. The less you know the better for his chances of living through this. I've got word he's already got men on it. We have to move fast or it will be too late. Gather up some of his things and get back here. You three can call someone to bring you stuff, but within the hour."

-Doctor's Training-

When Ichigo woke next he felt the distinct effects of a sedative. He blinked staring at a plain white ceiling that was unfamiliar to him. He turned over and saw he was in a nicely decorated room without windows. It didn't smell of dampness, but he got the impression it was underground. Something about the temperature and the way it sat. He got up, realizing he was in pajamas from his own home and got up. He flinched, cradling his ribs a bit. Still sore, but he knew he had pain meds in his system. He exited the room into a large living area and saw the three men from the night before sprawled in front of a large screen TV.

The albino looked up a grinned. "Ah, sleepin' beauty woke up."

"What's going on?" he asked, glancing around the unfamiliar space. Again, there were no windows.

"You're in the safehouse, remember? Last night, you flipped the fuck out on yer pop and he shot you with something to knock yer ass out. You okay, now? Cuz I got no problem popping another shot in yer ass if I have to," Grimmjow stated, staring at him.

Ichigo remembered. He'd panicked and had the first full body attack in a long time, screaming, hitting and cussing at everyone in sight. As if the recent changes in his life weren't bad enough, they wanted to take him away from work for who knew how long until this Aizen guy decided to lay off.

"Sorry 'bout that," he muttered, folding himself into the smallest corner of the large chair he could. "I don't do well with changes."

The other three just watched him and sighed. It was obvious he was in his shell. "Well, we're stuck here for a while, so get used to it, strawberry," Shiro said, coming over and sliding into the space beside him, making him both uncomfortable and comfortable at the same time.

Ichigo stared at him wide eyed for a moment as he wrapped an arm around his shoulder and pressed into him, and the doctor felt his eyes flutter at the delicious pressure against him, his nerves calming finally after the excitement of waking up in a strange place.

"Damn," Renji breathed. "It really does work like that…" he said mildly.

Ichigo looked up and grimaced. "It's a thing, I like pressure, but only when I want it."

"So I gotta know. Why weren't you freaking out when you were trussed up on the bed waiting for Aizen to come back?" Grimmjow asked, curious.

Ichigo started to say something then stopped. He shook his head. "I don't know. It felt nice, I think I would have been having a fit if he hadn't left me tied. Somehow…it just felt okay like that, that since I couldn't fight, I didn't have to worry."

Shiro squeezed him again and he smiled. "Man, I could get used to ya like this, strawberry," he said, grinning at the other two.

Renji and Grimmjow exchanged glances. It seemed that both of them were right. The less in control the boy got, the more he relaxed. And at the blissed out look on his face, Grimmjow lost it. He was on his knees in front of the chair where Shiro sat curled around Ichigo and he had his hands on the doctor's face. At first his eyes were wide at the contact, but a blush ran across his face immediately and Grimmjow knew that what he'd overheard was true. He did have a little crush on him.

"You know, we're stuck here for who knows how long, berry, how about we explore some of your options," he said with a very husky sound to his voice. "I can see it in yer eyes, berry. You are just aching to get something in yer life that you can let go with. I wanna help ya. We wanna help ya. Just say the word."

Ichigo gasped at the touch but more than that, he was amazed that he didn't push him away. He'd crushed a little on the blue haired man, but who wouldn't! He was built and sexy and everything any woman could ever want. Woman. And now he was moving on him…so did that mean he was into guys? His blush deepened and he wasn't sure what to think. But just then another set of hands were massaging the muscles of his neck. He groaned at the feeling as he looked up to see Renji behind him.

"What…I don't understand…" he whispered, very confused.

Grimmjow silenced his plea with a kiss on his lips that caused both his brown eyes to widen comically. Grimmjow was patient, though, and let his lips lay soft on the other man's for a moment before swiping his tongue out against the lips. At the touch, Ichigo gasped slightly and found the thick muscle slipping into his mouth, running along every surface. Shiro's hands were running down his arms and Renji was still working the muscles in his back. He was in a state he didn't understand at the moment as he felt the kiss deepen and he knew that he had to breathe soon.

"Silly berry," Grimmjow whispered as he leaned back. "I…we…want you to be a part of our group. We want you to be our pet."

Ichigo scrunched his eyebrows together. "Pet? I don't understand what that means."

Grimmjow reached out and caressed his face. "You will. But we're not going to do this too fast, this is new, and we're all agreed, it may just help ya be a better doctor and all."

Renji then tipped his head and captured his lips in another soft kiss that turned into a battle for air as they released. Shiro, not to be outdone, pulled his face to his own and allowed Ichigo to dominate his mouth this time. He then pushed him back and took over, savoring both positions for him. He wanted to dominate this one though, but he'd allow himself to be the bottom in the case it would pleasure him. But he knew this boy was not the type to take over. So even in pleasuring him, he would still be in charge. He found the thought exciting.

Ichigo's mind was whirling as he thought out the meanings of a word when applied to a human. The only thing that came to mind was collars and submission and…

"You guys are talking like bondage aren't you…" he said with a hesitant whisper.

Shiro grinned. "Damn, you are one smart pet," he said, licking his neck below the ear, getting an intense shiver out of him.

"But…I've never…I mean, that's like…" Ichigo stammered. "I've never done anything."

There was a momentary pause among the three men. "You've never had sex?" asked Renji, quirking a red brow.

Ichigo shook his head. "No, never done anything…that…that was my first time kissing anyone…"

Instead of hard looks he was met with soft smiles from all three, and he found himself in an all encompassing warmth. He gasped at the sensation of all three of them folding him into their arms and it felt so right.

"But…what does it mean…I don't know about this kind of thing," he said finally when the hug was released.

Grimmjow gently pulled him from the chair and sat down on the couch, watching as he stood nervously. Shiro came up and pulled him down to sit on Grimmjow's lap, which got an incredibly surprised squeak out of him. Renji curled on one side, and Shiro on the other. Grimmjow looked to Shiro, the most experienced in this type of thing. Shiro nodded.

"Ichigo, this is an agreement. No one will ever make you do something you don't want. We make a contract of sorts with each of us, and we stick to it. Things you like, things you don't like, things each of us likes and doesn't like. How far you want to go and how far you won't go. There are things, soft and hard limits. Soft limits are things you might want to do, and hard are never something you want to try. And we decide ahead of time what they are. You're always safe, no matter what, and it is our job to take care of you no matter what, okay?" Shiro said and passed a hand over his wide eyed face.

"I…feel good when you hold me like that…" he said. "And it was weird, when I was tied up…it felt nice. And I should have been panicking, I should have been fighting him because I knew what was going to happen and I couldn't understand what was happening. Why didn't I yell and scream when he took the gag off, why didn't I…" Ichigo was starting to get upset.

Shiro pressed a finger to his lips gently. "Stop, pet, stop. You are so in need it is almost tangible."

Ichigo frowned, mentally assessing the needs for survival, as usual, never looking past the obvious. "But my needs are met fully, and I have a job I love, obsess with, more accurately. My family is there, and I have all my…"

"But you are fulla anxiety, stress, and ya can't get rid of it," Shiro said softly. "You spend ya life in control, and what ya need, is a lil' loss of control. In this, you depend entirely on _us_ , trust entirely on us, and we will see that all ya know is what ya need to feel complete in the rest a'yer life. And its up ta ya to decide how much control we have. I know ya control yer time at the hospital. So it is completely unspoken that you retain that when you are at work. This is the kind of things that we would put in our contract."

Ichigo nodded. "So if it is there in the contract you abide by it."

Grimmjow tightened his hold around his waist, mindful to keep his hands well below the bandages on his ribs. "We only want to be with you. And that's what we desire."

"But the socially acceptable norms…I should find a wife…and have a child to continue the lineage of a strong intellectual genetic structure…" Ichigo began.

"Fuck social norms, kid," Renji said, tilting his head to look at him. "Since when do you give shit what society thinks? You'll be able to be yourself. No scripts, no fuckin' checklists. Just be yourself."

Ichigo swallowed. Complete freedom…no fear of repercussions, and to feel completely taken care of… "Maybe, I mean, I don't know yet, I…"

Shiro grinned, pulling Ichigo's face into a soft kiss again as Grimmjow ran hands over his orange locks. Ichigo melted at the touches again, having never experienced something so soft yet firm in his life. He wanted more, much more, and he felt his obsessions, his needs, that drove him nearly to madness on a daily basis slide away. He didn't have to answer them right now, something more was tugging at his core. The offer was blissful to his ears. A place he could be safe, and let go at the same time, he wasn't sure what to think but he was sure what he felt. Felt. He spent so much time thinking he rarely felt the way others consider it. Now he was _feeling._ Not just physically feeling the touches, the lips, the tongue, the hands running over his back and his hair, but feeling inside something he'd never felt before.

Before he knew hit he was flipped around and straddling Grimmjow, leaning into his shoulder while he stroked his back. Over his shoulder, Renji grabbed his mouth in another kiss that pulled his soul to the surface again. His mind was whirling. All the carefully constructed ideas of society that had been trained into him were cracking and breaking apart. The relationship rules that had been drummed into him at puberty were falling apart. Ideas that had been so carefully shaped by therapist and his father were becoming muddy and falling to pieces. The rules were being shattered.

And he didn't care. For the first time, he didn't care that the rules were breaking apart, because in this room, with these people, those rules didn't apply. They would apply again when he walked out the door. They would apply in the real world, but this…this world was different. This was the world he was so much out of control that he should be scared, but instead, he was letting them take over, letting them control him for a change, and he couldn't be happier with the idea.

After what seemed like an eternity of kissing and gentle touches, Ichigo's head felt like it was floating. It was a sensation he was unused to having, and he had forgotten all about the soreness in his nose and eye socket. His jaw was numb, and he didn't care when twinges of pain shot through him when a tongue lapped at the purple bruising there. He had slid off the lap he'd been on, not really noticing when, and was leaning with his back in Renji's stomach, and felt the obvious arousal agasint him. He swallowed, nervously looking at the man behind him.

"Ichigo, relax, we've got plenty a' time, and we have an agreement to come ta first. Today is about getting to know each other, and giving ya the attention you richly deserve without fearing anything," Renji said, brushing a hand over his hair. "Ya gonna be our pet, and we wanna show ya how much affection we're gonna give ya each and every day…"

Ichigo sighed into his arms and felt hands, whose hands, he didn't even know anymore, brushing against his face and over his shirt and down his back. It was all so gentle that he relaxed into it. None of them ventured lower, and no one shucked clothes. As hard as it was for the three semes, they were showering their soon to be uke with incredible amounts of affection and building trust in them more than anything. That, beyond all else, was what they wanted.

Trust would be their bond, and even though within the walls of their home, wherever it was, their small group would explore their limits. And they would bring their young pet along with them and take him to the heights that he never knew. A simple plan in all, and as strange as it was, they had Aizen to thank for opening up the boy's eyes that loss of control was what he desperately needed.


	6. Consideration

Three weeks passed in quiet solitude. Well, somewhat quiet. The tentative young doctor needed time to come to terms with what they were saying, and also his own feelings toward them, and the new ideas running through his head. And sometimes there were some definite explosive incidents due to the doctor's unique nature. The first day after they had their "talk" he absolutely refused to come out of his room at all, frustrating the other three to no end and making them seriously consider that they might have ruined their chances. The problem was, none of them were patient. The fact they hadn't already took things past some light kissing and touching was a miracle. Of course, that didn't stop the interplay between the other three, quietly of course, and always when their doctor was asleep. But he wasn't ready to jump into bed with them, so they sated themselves otherwise. Shiro could be surprisingly quiet when he wanted to be, they found.

After the initial heady calming, the others found the only time their prospective sub would really tolerate them was when he came actively seeking one of them to hold him. This did happen a lot and it seemed there was no reason he picked whichever one of them he picked to soothe whatever anxiety had flared up that particular day. However, they noticed that his anxiety and obsessions were steadily increasing the longer he was secluded from the rest of the world. The first week, it had been maybe once a day, he'd drop into agitation. Then it slowly increased to at least three or four times a day. He had explained early on that it was removal from his routine, that he needed some kind of structure. So, doing what they could, they tried to provide for it.

It wasn't working though. More often than not they would find him thrumming hands against his thighs or whatever surface there was, and eventually he started having trouble avoiding snapping at them over small things. It was an incredibly good thing that his three housemates were patient and tolerant of him, if they were patient with nothing else. Shiro was the closest to exploding on the doctor, but even he knew that what was happening was beyond his control. Mostly he was annoyed at playing sub. While it amused him, and he enjoyed it, the reason he was a switch was because he liked both. And here, he was stuck in one position, and that, he didn't like.

So instead, he ended up curled on the couch or chair with one of them for hours of the day. Generally, whoever his snuggle partner, as they named it, was petting him gently, using pressure of their hands to force some relaxation on the poor man.

They finally requested some form of internet access. They were blanket banned from communications of all kinds, including email or anything that sent information from their system. At least though, the more determined of the three did some research. Shiro found himself engulfed in websites and surrounded by more information than he could have ever wanted about the doctor that was currently holed up in his room again. There were conflicting stories, and finally he came across a digitized copy of the biography that had been done on him. It took a couple days, but he'd read the thing all the way through. He sat and thought about how to approach the others because it was quite obvious without access to his obsession that of medicine and surgery, the kid was quickly unraveling.

"Renji, you ever look inta that book the kid had done?" Shiro asked, glancing up as the tattooed red head came in with a plate.

He shook his head, and Grimmjow too had come up beside him, eating a sandwich as he moved. "Nah, never got a copy a'fore we left to this place," he said with a huff. After three weeks, they were all feeling more than a little stir crazy. And still nothing on how much longer.

There was a hit out on all four of them, well, for the three of them, and an order to snag the young doctor. Shiro's boss, Yama, was attempting to negotiate with Aizen, but so far there had been no progress. Aizen was adamant that even if Shiro was one of Yama's highest, he was going to die for taking what was his. And that went for the two that accompanied him as well. Aizen was a greedy bastard, though. Luckily, the doctor's family wasn't targeted, perhaps more because only his father had remained in town, his sisters had both been sent to safety. And Aizen was too bent on finding and destroying those that took his prize. It was really quite sick, the way he saw him as a possession. And for that alone, Shiro would keep the man away from him.

But that left them in a predicament. He was steadily losing his grip, and who could blame him? Shiro had been looking up and discussing information they had come across from what they'd pieced together of their doctor (yes they already thought of him as their doctor) and had come to the conclusion that there were some very not good consequences of this. In their research the one thing they didn't like was mentions of self-injurious behaviors. Now, from what they saw, their doctor shouldn't be someone that did that. But this wasn't a normal situation. As they researched they realized that the recent events were just the thing to set triggers that their doctor might just do something drastic. Granted, unlike something like cutting, it didn't seem that he would likely be headed toward doing something to cause major damage…but it was still worrisome.

"So yeah, I guess people like him sometimes do self-injury when they get too far outta it," he said, eyes rolling up to Renji and Grimmjow who had just entered.

"Wha…like cutting?" Renji asked, frowning.

Shiro shook his head. "Nah, nothin' like that shit. Like to relieve tension, or deal with shit, or get clarity. Like, man, when he was a kid, he did it apparently. Like bashin' his head into the floor, and biting himself until he bled."

"Wow…that sucks. I really should read tha book, if we wanna keep this shit together," Renji said thoughtfully.

"What? Man, we ain't _got_ anything yet. Three weeks and we're not much closer than we were, and fuck if I'm more smitten than I was," Grimmjow huffed, thinking about how his heard would beat out of his chest every time the doctor would come and snuggle next to him.

Between Renji and Shiro, Grimmjow had learned a lot about the lifestyle, and of course what it took to be a good master and take care of a pet. The fact that the total control issue was a huge turn on was a bonus. But it was different with Shiro. Shiro wasn't their pet, not really. He may have been a switch, but he was nowhere near what Grimmjow was realizing he really wanted in his life.

Shiro smiled. "I know, man, I want to hold him until he doesn't feel his own toes anymore."

Renji shook his head. "I have never, and I mean never, run into a sub like him that I wanted for more than a quick fuck. Man…this sucks. I mean, I've always got off on tha control, the pain, but this is so fuckin' different. I don't wanna take him as mine because of that. I really want to help him, and that's fuckin' weird man…"

Shiro grinned at him. "Five years and yer just now figuring out what yer really supposed to be doin'?"

"The fuck that mean, whitey?" Renji asked, crinkling his nose.

"Look, there are those that get off on pain, they whip and are whipped, and that's it. I like it, fuckin' pain turns me on faster than anything, but that's not the same as a real partnership or groupin'. It ain't just about havin' a steady partner. It's more intense, more like marriage," Shiro said, teeth worrying his lip as he remembered the first time he had this talk with a fellow dom right after he entered the lifestyle.

Grimmjow was intrigued. They'd discussed a lot, but not the dynamics in pairs, triads and groupings that were permanent. "I guess I'm not following."

Shiro grinned. "We have contracts, like I told ya before, but its more than that. You take yer sub because you want to help them, treat them like the most beautiful thing in the world…well at least, the master/pet relationship."

"Master/pet?" Grimmjow asked. "There's something beside that?"

Shiro smiled. "The way I was trained, there are two. Master/Pet and Master/Slave. Those that use the term pet are really more caring and pleasure centered, the slaves are more control and pain centered. I never liked the term slave, but pet I could get behind. Not everyone does it like this…I just think the difference is important, ya know? Treating someone like a precious pet rather than a slave."

"Precious pet," Renji murmured. "Oh gods that just sent all the fuckin' blood to my cock, can't think…"

Grimmjow snickered. "Damn, yer a hopeless pervert, Red."

Renji waggled a brow. "Fuck yes, and I still wanna lick 'im head to toe and back again…"

"Well, ain't never been tongue fucked by someone quite like you before, so I believe it," Shiro said giving Renji a wink.

"Okay so what do we do?" Grimmjow announced.

Shiro nodded. "Next time he's out we talk to him. Tell him our intentions."

"And what exactly is that gonna be?" Renji said, frowning. "I mean, okay, I wanna take care of him, make sure he's safe, and answer every fuckin' desire he ever had, but how I am I supposed to phrase it?"

"Say that, what about you, Grimmjow?" Shiro said.

Grimmjow thought. "I mean, fuck, from the moment I saw how fuckin' frazzeled he was, I wanted to help him. And then the whole Aizen shit, and I just wanna show him he can trust me completely."

Shiro nodded. "Then we make the contract after we negotiate if he wants to try it. We give him a consideration collar."

Grimmjow hadn't gotten to this point in instruction yet. "A what?"

Shiro smiled. "There are three. Consideration, training and final. Think promise ring, engagement ring, and wedding ring that vanillas use."

"The collar thing is a little…obvious in public for him though. I mean, he won't be able to wear something like that to work…" Renji said, thinking of those he'd been around who were collared.

"Red, it doesn't have to be a literal collar, at least not in public. A simple locket, pendant, chain, dog tags, whatever. I've seen all for public face. Remember, when we talk to him, he has to understand, we would have nothing to do with his profession. At all," Shiro said with a smile.

They heard a noise behind them and realized Ichigo had come from his room and was listening into their conversation. They had no idea how long he'd been there. He was watching them all very carefully. Shiro smiled and stood, pulling him towards the table to sit him down. He looked nervously around at all of them.

"But…why?" he said quietly.

He was met with three confused stares. "What do you mean?"  
"Why would you want me, of all people, to be involved with you? You're all so much better and normal and…I'm not," he said, staring down at his hands that had already started thrumming against his thighs.

"Ichigo, because we just do. We all like you, and we all wanna help ya. And who the fuck wants normal, anyway?" Shiro said, giving him a sideways grin.

Ichigo was so confused. "I don't understand. I hear what you're saying but I don't get it. I mean, I still can't understand how I was so calm when there was a guy that planned on raping me. Why was I calm? Did it mean I wanted him to do it? Is that what I am? I mean, I didn't think…"

He started as he felt Grimmjow's arms fold around his waist and his chair scoot next to him. "Ichi, baby, no, not at all. You were calmed by being bound, does that make sense?"

Renji grinned then and nodded. "I'll be damned, Blue has certainly caught on."

"I don't understand…" Ichigo whispered. "And I understand everything but I don't understand this…"

Shiro smiled, moving forward and took his hand. "Ichi, look, what makes you feel the best in the world?"

He thought for a minute. "Being held really tight until I almost can't breathe."

"And why does it make you feel good?" Shiro continued.

"I don't know, it just makes me feel safe, secure, and everything melts away…" he said. "I…I don't have to think about who I am and what I'm doing…and there's…no expectations."

Renji and Shiro exchanged a look. "That's right. And what expectations are there on you?"

"I've got to have everything in hand. I have to be the best at what I do. I've got to know where I'm going and how to get there. I've got to make sure I remember my scripts and my checklists. I've got to remember every step in each procedure and I have to do it better than everyone else because if I don't someone else might die…" he stopped, eyes wide.

Grimmjow spoke now in his ear. "Who died that you couldn't save?"

Ichigo's mouth worked mutely for a moment. "K-kaien…"

"Who was that?" Grimmjow said, rubbing small circles into his shoulder blades.

"M-my cousin…" he said softly, getting a glance from the others. "I…I was three. I remember the smell of the hospital…and my pop crying and I couldn't understand…I just was so cold without him."

"Ichigo, your book didn't talk about that," Shiro said softly.

Ichigo shook his head. "I don't talk about him. He lived with us, we were born a year apart, he was older than me. He was like my big brother, and we shared a room. I snuck in his bed every night and he would hold me so close that I could sleep without thinking. His mom had left to travel, and we took him…and…and he had a brain tumor that they couldn't operate on. And…and now…I know I could have done it…if I'd been older, I could have done it and he'd have lived, and I can't…can't…"

Grimmjow quickly crushed him against him in a tight hug, his eyes rolling into his head and sighing deeply. "I can't hold on so much, so much…I hurt so much…"

"We want to help, if you will let us?" Shiro said, running a hand through his hair.

Ichigo was confused about a lot of things. But one thing that was startlingly clear, he wasn't confused when he was held by these people. These three had given him more in the last month than he'd felt in his whole life. He'd _felt._ They didn't flinch at his odd behaviors, or his outbursts. The accepted him for who he was. They let him do what he needed to do without chastising for not being nice enough, or saying the wrong things, or drumming his fingers so he could relax. No, in three weeks, he'd gotten more comfort and acceptance than he'd ever gotten, with absolutely no expectations of him. Maybe that was it. None of them expected him to be anything except himself.

"I…" he began. "I want to let go…just for a minute…let go and let you take it…I want…I want…"

"Ichigo, do you want to be taken care of?" Shiro asked quietly. "Do you want to let someone else have complete and total control?"

He looked up into those strange black and gold eyes and nodded slowly. Shiro smiled and kissed his forehead softly, heading into his bedroom and came back with a bag. He smiled at him, and then at the others.

"I have my own ways of doing this, but I've never been in a group. So this is something we all gotta agree on. But Ichi-pet, I wanna offer you this," he said, drawing out a thin, black strip of leather with a buckle in silver. "I wanna offer you this collar of consideration, and if ya like what happens, then we can take tha next step, okay? But this…this is for here."

He reached in the bag and removed four cuffs, all black leather and with buckles. "These I brought because we had thought of this before, and I had them pulled for us. We'd each wear one, to mark us as a group. The ring in this one," he said, lifting one of that had a silver circle dangling. "Is for you, like the physical one. Ya heard what I said, there's three stages. And this is tha first. If we go on, then we'll have new ones made for us all. And a training collar for ya."

Ichigo nodded. "But…isn't it weird for there to be three of you for me?"

Shiro nodded. "Nah, I'm a switch, so there will be days I'll be beside ya, and others I'll be master. And that's tha way I like it," he said with a nod. "But because of that, I don't wear a consideration collar. I may wear a training collar, depending on how we take it."

Ichigo fingered the leather cuff and collar. "Are you sure? I'm…I'm… I mean, I've never done anything like this…and I'm not experienced…"

There was a silence. "Wait," Renji said, frowning. "You mean, you've never…"

Ichigo nodded. "My first kiss was with you guys…" he said softly.

There was an exchange of looks. That was a different matter, and none of them were sure how to proceed. It was one thing to introduce someone into the world of bondage who had never been involved, but it was quite another to take a virgin into that world. The experience was often intense and none were really sure that taking someone with no sexual experience into something considered so deviant by a majority of the world was a good idea.

"Um, Ichi, I mean, then maybe we shouldn't do this, if you've never been with someone, this might be too much for you at first, and…" Shiro said, reaching for the items from the orange haired doctor. "What we do gets intense, and I've never had…"

Ichigo stopped his hand. "No, I think…I think this might be what I need."

"But, Ichi, if you've never even had sex, how do you know…" Grimmjow said from beside him.

"Just because I haven't had sex doesn't mean I don't understand it. I knew about sex from the age of nine when I started studying advanced biology, and even more at ten when I was studying human sexuality. And I understand the basic concepts of what you're talking about, it was listed in the books I've studied under sexual deviancy," he said clinically.

There was a flinch from the three males. He looked at them with a smile. "It isn't anymore, you know, they took it out this year finally. It wasn't that long that homosexuality was also listed there. So I know, but I never thought about it…I mean really even thought about sex…but it might feel nice."

Shiro smiled and picked up the thin leather collar. He leaned over and smiled. "So, doctor, will you accept our collar of consideration?"

He smiled softly. "I will, I will accept the collar if you will accept me as I am, and not ask me to be what I cannot," he said, looking between them all.

"Never once," Grimmjow said beside him, tightening his grip around the thinner man's waist. "Never once."

Shiro smiled and buckled the soft leather gently around his neck and sat back with a grin, deftly buckling the cuff to his left wrist, followed by the other three. Since they'd already considered making a grouping on a permanent basis, they had discussed their roles in the grouping, but now the dynamics would change drastically.

"Now, Ichi-pet, you've got to help with something," Shiro said seriously, reaching behind him and pulling out a folder from the counter. "We aren't making a permanent contract yet, but this just will be the limiting contract to start with. We need you to look through this list and decided what you want to do, what you might like, what you aren't sure about, and what you refuse outright. Anything you set as a hard limit can't be done, no matter what, by any of us, okay?"

He passed him a stapled set of papers and a pen. Ichigo glanced down them, eyes widening as he scanned it. "Who does _that_?" he muttered, brows furrowing. "Or…people do that?"

He looked up to see the amused grins. "Everything on there is a fetish or something that we could do in our times together. We have to know what your limits are so we don't do something you really don't want. This is where we play out scenes of non-consent sometimes, and sometimes no means yes. Unless you really, truly mean no. And that's what this is for."

Ichigo frowned. "I don't get the no means yes."

Shiro nodded. "Take me. I love pain, I mean, fuckin' love to have my ass whipped until I'm bleeding. But half the fun is screaming and yelling no, and writhing in the bindings as the feelings wash over me."

Ichigo nodded. "Okay, I see…I see…Kind of like when I was tied up and felt okay, even when he was…doing that to me…"

Shiro nodded. "Yes, so like here. Some people like watersports. A lot of people don't."

"Watersports?" he said staring at that block. "What's that?"

Renji sighed. "You are really naïve sometimes, kid," he said. "Piss. Being peed on, peeing on someone…moyashi, that sort of stuff."

Ichigo's eyes widened. "Yeah, don't like that at all, I'm doctor and I know it's sterile, but ah, yeah, no."

"Then that's a hard limit. Put that there on the watersports box. And any of the others that ya absolutely have no interest in. Soft limits ya are maybe willing to try, and if ya do, we'd make srue there's a safe word or safe signal if yer gagged," Shiro said, smiling.

Ichigo nodded, reaching up to finger the leather on his neck with an absent smile as he worked through the pages. He would comment now and then with disgust or interest. The three watched him work slowly. When he was done he nodded to Shiro.

"Um, now what?" he said, glancing around nervously.

Shiro put a hand on him. "We're not going to tie you up and fuck ya just because you've taken the consideration collar. Now, we spend some time getting to know you. You've taken three weeks to get this far, we're not going to force ya into sex especially since you've never done it. And besides, this isn't really where I foresee concreting a bond…"

Ichigo smiled. "Okay, I can do that."

Shiro smiled. "Today, I think should be for you and me, since we've been talkin'. We'll let Red and Blue go play in the bedroom, and we'll have dinner and watch something on tha TV together." Shiro paused, seeing the look. "I know yer not switches, go suck each other off, or somethin'."

Both men blushed a bit and escaped the room. It was easy to see how Shiro could be a dom. He looked down at Ichigo.

"In this stage, you don't have to do anything, okay? No master or anything. But I do like callin' ya Ichi-pet if that's okay," he said smiling softly.

Ichigo nodded. "I think that's okay."

Shiro smiled, and the pair went about talking about their lives as they fixed dinner together, giving Grimmjow and Renji food when they were done. After their dinner, they watched a movie and fell asleep against each other on the couch. The next two weeks of their confinement, saw them repeating the actions. Dinner, movies, and games spent together in various groups of two, three and four. And by the end, Ichigo felt something blooming inside him that he'd never felt before. It felt warm, and comfortable, and gave him these nervous bubbles in his stomach he'd never felt before. And, he realized, for the first time in his life, he was actually aroused by someone enough to feel heat pooling in the bottom of his stomach at their voices and touch. Because, to say that Ichigo Kurosaki, greatest neurosurgeon in the world currently, published researcher in the subject of brain tissue regrowth, and man with the highest IQ on record in his hospital and school…was more than just inexperienced. He had _no_ experience. Even with himself.


	7. Training

Slowly, the four men grew to know each other quite well. After another couple weeks, a whole two months after they'd come to the safe house, they felt like they were doing well. Well, considering that the doctor was going completely mad. He spent most his time curled on the couch with one of them, and freaking out over everything. Finally, they got the word that they were being moved to a lower security safe house and the doctor would be allowed to return to his job. The relief that flooded all of them was intense. Once he got back into his routine at the hospital he would start to feel more normal.

Aizen had called off the hits finally, and the kidnapping order had been retracted, so they didn't have to worry about every freelance and mercenary in the area trying to get to them. Old Yama had come through for Shiro, but his position within Yama's boys and Aizen's had been stripped. Of course, he really didn't care. He had more important things to worry about, in particular, presenting a training collar to a certain orange haired sub. Their first weekend back, Shiro had planned to do the presentation at the Dangai. It was a surprise for the two doms and their little sub. Of course, they were under strict protective detail. There were several officers at the hospital, and one would tail him during the day, including into the operating room. Luckily, that officer, a woman named Hiyori with blonde pigtails, was used to seeing surgery performed. The other hospital officers were named Love (a fellow with a weird star shaped afro) and Love who had long blonde hair. Hiyori's partner was a man named Kensai, though he would not enter the operating theater.

They also had the pair that would be tailing them and following them into whatever establishments they entered. Izuru Kira was a shy and unassuming man with cropped blonde hair, and his partner was Hisagi Shuuhei, a dark haired man with a sixty-nine tattoo on his face. When they were introduced, Shiro held his tongue but he seriously wondered if the man was into some kink with a tattoo like that. They would find out soon enough when they headed to the Dangai. Considering that these two officers were their official attachment, they were also staying in the large house they were using as a safe house. It had four large bedrooms, and the officers were taking up one of them, while the four others were to share the remaining three. Of course, they were using one for a bedroom, one for a play room, and the last as an office, though their live in guards didn't know that just yet.

As soon as they hit the house the first night, they began rearranging, much to the annoyance of their resident protection. The two stood at the end of the hallway and watched as they picked the largest room with an en suite bath and proceeded to go through the other two bedrooms. Each room had a full sized bed, so they decided to put two of them into the large room. They then used some straps over the box springs to lash them together, coming up with a huge bed. They set it in the middle of the room, and were quite happy that the two beds had metal head and footboards. They maneuvered two dressers into the room, splitting the drawer space between them.

Ichigo watched from outside the room as they worked. Hisagi and Izuru came up beside him and looked in.

"What are they doing?" the dark haired one asked.

Ichigo smiled at him. "They're setting up our bedroom. I'm not sure on all the details, I'm new to this."

The two officers exchanged a look. They heard a call from downstairs. "Yo, Shiro, where ya want the playroom? Far or near bedroom?"

Shiro poked a white head from the room. "Closer the better! Don't want anyone slipping into subspace without access to a bed and bath."

Kira and Shuuhei were really, really confused by this. More than they were comfortable admitting. Ichigo himself was nervous. They'd talked about what they were going to set up here and he was at the same time excited and scared. Shiro came out and smiled at him.

"Whatsamatter, Ichi-pet?" he asked, noticing that he was fiddling with his hands.

"I…I mean, I know what we talked about…but its…its really real right now, and I'm…" Ichigo said, biting hard on his lip.

Shiro planted a kiss on his forehead. "Hush, pet, it'll be fine. We're goin' ta Dangai tonight, so you'll get ta see Nel again and Shinji. Turns out Nel's got him all tricked out with his fancy trainin' collar and he's proud as can be of the thing. He's so excited ta show ya!"

Ichigo nodded. "He got his training collar? Will I…I mean…I know it hasn't been that long…" Shiro shushed him again and winked.

"Well, I got a surprise for ya tonight when we get there. Make sure you wear your collar, and go get dressed. Wear the black leather outfit. I want ta show ya off nice."

"Where are you going?" Kira said, finding his voice.

Shiro looked up realizing they weren't alone. "Ah, yeah, to Las Noches, but you guys can wear whatever. I know yer gonna be following us, even inside?"

They nodded. "Great, well, we don't stay in the dance club, we head down to the Dangai."

"What's that?" Shuuhei asked.

Grimmjow came up with a large box. "You'll see," he commented as he placed the box in the playroom. "Damn, Shiro, between you and Renji, this is a shit ton of stuff. I don't even know what half this stuff does."

Shiro opened it and smiled. "Oooh, this one has my swing, but I don't see my flogs, is there another box?"

Grimmjow nodded. "One more, smaller."

Shiro nodded. "Ya, that one has the flogs and crops. Just makin' sure. I ain't played with my own toys in a while…"

"Guys, get dressed, we'll leave in an hour! Ichi-pet! Wear the black leather!" Renji called from downstairs.

"I got it, Ren! Shiro already told me!" he called down, smiling and heading into their new bedroom.

Shiro shuffled the box into the playroom and followed to get dressed himself. Grimmjow returned with a smaller box and then went in to dress, followed shortly by the red head. The two officers headed downstairs to wait.

"What the hell is going on, Hisagi?" Kira asked, watching the stairs.

Shuuhei gave a crooked smile. "I have a feeling they're into some kink."

Kira blinked. "Like, sex kink?"

"Yeah, but let's wait until they come down. I'm sure we'll see when we get to this Dangai. You ever heard of it? I know the club…" the dark haired man asked.

Kira shook his head and it wasn't long before Grimmjow came down the stairs first, causing both extremely straight men waiting by the door to arch a brow in appreciation. He was wearing a tight black t-shirt with a panther across it that showed off the defined muscles underneath. He wore a pair of black jeans that flared over a pair of heavy black boots. He wore a thick black cuff on his left wrist. Renji slid down the rail, wearing a pair of red leather pants accented with a black studded belt. His red hair was tied back with a leather cord. He wore a silver and black mesh t-shirt that did nothing to hide the tattoos that zig zagged across the hard and extremely defined muscles. They leaned against the rails.

Renji rolled his eyes at the two gaping officers. "Gotta wait for the women-folk," he said grinning.

"Fuckin' heard that, ya red bastard," came Shiro's lilt. "And either watch it or this boy's gonna go all dom on yer ass tonight, see how ya fuckin' like it."

"Come on, bring him down, I wanna see…" Grimmjow said, looking rather impatient.

"I don't know, I mean, I've never worn anything like this," came the unsure voice of Ichigo.

"Come on," Shiro said and came down. Both officers gaped again.

Shiro was wearing a set of short shorts, really short shorts, and thigh high boots. He wore a shirt that came to just below his pectoral muscles, exposing a hard six pack of abdominals and in the low slung shorts, a pierced belly button with a ring hanging from it. He wore an identical black cuff. Ichigo came down tentatively in a pair of tight leather pants, but each side from hip to ankle was laced with black leather straps, leaving his sides exposed. He wore a pair of plain black boots with it. He wore a white open collared shirt with a leather vest. Around his neck was a thin, black collar. Like the others, he wore a black leather cuff, but his had a silver ring on it.

"Holy fuck," Renji read. "I'm gonna fuckin' kill anyone that touches you tonight…fuck."

"Let's go!" Shiro announced, snagging Ichigo by the collar and leading him out. Ichigo blinked but followed, being led easily. They all piled into Shiro's red sportscar, followed by the two officers in a plain black car.

They headed up to the club the officers close behind. They got in easily enough and Shuuhei and Kira were surprised when they went behind the bar where a huge man with an eyepatch stood.

"Yo, ain't see ya in a while, Shiro," he said with a grunt. "Been people looking for ya."

"Ya, well, this is my newbie subby, Ichigo," he said, pushing Ichigo forward.

"Ichi-pet, this is Kenni, he's the bouncer for Dangai, you have any trouble with anyone, then you come to Kenni, and he'll make sure ta take care of ya," Shiro said.

They went into the doorway, leading the two officers and down into the lower part of the club. Shuuhei and Kira gaped.

"Shiro! You subbin or domin tonight? I wanna whip ya, sweetie!" came a voice from a brunette at the bar.

"Sorry, off tha market!" he called. There were groans all around.

Ichigo was taking it all in, his quick mind assessing who was what and who was in which position. Soon Nel came running, dressed up in a full dom gear, leading a stumbling Shinji by a leash. He looked positively blissed out. He ran forward and hugged Ichigo.

"Look, I got my training collar!" he said, showing off the thick black leather collar studded with clear gemstones and emerald colored stripes. "Nel has turned into everything I want and more!" he turned to her with huge doe eyes.

"Nel, you remember the doc," Grimmjow said, pushing Ichigo forward, and she gaped.

"Oh, my goodness, you are so cute! Such a hot little sub you turned into," she said, turning him around. "Who knew you hid such a fab little body under that doctor's coat!"

She turned away to talk to Grimmjow then, and Ichigo smiled to himself. Then, he flinched as he felt someone's hand grab his ass. He turned around and stared into someone's chest, then looked up to find a strong built guy with black hair.

"Lookie here, a fresh un," the man muttered.

Before he could react the man grabbed both hands around his waist and pulled him up off the floor, pulling him away from the others.

"Put me down!" he squeaked.

"But yer such a pretty lil thing, just wanna taste a lil bit…" he said, pulling him up and licking his face before tossing him into a room onto a bed. He sat there stunned as the door shut, a lock clicking into place.

"You…you let me out of here," he stammered.

"No way, yer new here, I always taste the new ones around here," he said with an impossibly wide grin.

"M-my masters won't let you touch me!" he said.

He came forward and snapped the consideration collar easily and tossed it aside. "I don't see anything saying you have any masters, sweetheart."

Ichigo's hands went to his throat. "You…you can't do that!"

"Who's gonna know, little sub? Now just lay back, and I'll take you further than any of those unseasoned boys could ever do," he said, still grinning.

There was a knock at the door that he ignored. Ichigo yelled for someone to help him, but the problem was the playrooms were all insulated for sound. He scrambled off the bed with a thump and went to pound on the door in return, hoping that whoever was on the other side would get that he needed help. His hands were sweaty and he couldn't get the lock. He yelped when he felt the guy in the room slap his ass hard.

"What do you think yer doing, tryin' to get away from me?" he said with a smirk, dragging him back to toss him on the bed.

The door was being pounded on again, and Ichigo was seriously reconsidering this lifestyle if he was going to have deal with this every time. Finally the locked clicked and he saw Kenni, the bouncer from the front, glaring into the room.

Ichigo took the distraction to stumble off the bed and grab onto the large man's leg. "Kenni! He broke my collar, and he wouldn't let me out…"

Behind the large man he saw his group and Nel with Shinji. Kenni looked down at him. "Did you want to go with him, Ichigo?"

Ichigo shook his head. "No! He picked me up and threw me in here and I told him my masters would be mad that…" He felt a big hand on his head patting him, and he turned him toward the group behind him. Ichigo dashed and grabbed onto Grimmjow, breathing heavy.

"Abirama, what have I told you about trying to get subs by stealing the consideration subs?" he said. "You know they're together, yet you took him without his permission," he heard Kenni say behind him. "Now, get out. Don't come back to the Dangai."

The tall man huffed and left the club. Kenni turned back and kneeled before Ichigo and Grimmjow. "Hey, you okay? Did he hurt you?" he asked.

Ichigo turned his head out of Grimmjow's chest and shook his head. "He broke my collar," he said mournfully. "Now I don't have one."

There was a moment and Ichigo felt something clasp around his neck. He blinked and reached up to feel a much thicker collar set with a silver ring like his cuff. He looked up at Shiro who had clasped it on his throat. "If you want it, Ichi-pet," he said softly.

"I…I think I do…" he said softly. Shiro grinned and kissed him soundly. Grimmjow reached down and pulled him up into his arms, getting a gasp as they headed over to a larger table. They all sat down, Grimmjow keeping Ichigo in his lap as he soothed his jangled nerves. After a while, they decided to work on their contract.

"Okay, since we're doing this, we gotta figure out the hard limits," Shiro said, pulling out his files from a backpack that Ichigo hadn't noticed before.

He opened the checklists and scanned them. "First, we'll decide on the hard limits we have in common. Now, Grimmy, Ichi-pet, this is considered the negotiation. This means that there is no play here, this is just our place to discuss things. One major rule, if you ever feel you need to, anyone can invoke the negotiation to be reinstated at any time. Now, hard limits…" he muttered.

"Ah, no one is into scat. Good, that's…well nasty. And no one really into watersports, though Renji gave it a soft. Okay, maybe later. No one into electrocution, suffocation, or knifeplay. Probably good since ER trips are a pain for that you know," he said, and after a while they found all their common hard limits. Then they went through and did similar lists for each of them. Soon enough, they'd come to agreement on the things they would not be doing. Then a similar thing was done for the soft limits.

"Now, we need our safe signals. How about stoplights? I always thought it was pretty clear. Yellow light means you want to slow down or you're unsure, red light means stop no matter what, assuming it is safe to do so. There are cases that it might not be safe to immediately stop an activity. However it will be stopped as soon as possible," Shiro said with a nod. "Nonverbal signals should be holding up one finger for yellow, two fingers for red light."

There was a few pen scratches. "Now, the scenes will take place in the bedroom or the playroom as a rule. What about behavior in the rest of the house? Ichigo, when do you want to be our pet? When you walk in the door, or only in the bedroom and playroom?"

Ichigo thought of it. "Can we start with the bedroom and playroom, and then see where it goes?" he said softly.

"We can leave that as an open negotiation section. Now, anything else now before we all sign on the contract?"

Shiro looked around. "Now, we will agree to have no control over Ichigo's career, and our private times will never interfere with his ability to work or continue his profession. Times will be allowed for absences when he has conferences and training, and consideration taken for emergencies and long term absences. The same goes for when he has interaction with personal friends and family. Agreed?" he asked, looking around.

"Now the main thing is that we are here to help Ichigo, and we are here to care for, and love him with everything. We are going to do everything we can to ensure his happiness, health, and welfare."

A few minutes later, all the details had been hashed out, and Shiro typed everything into his laptop and used the club's printer to get a copy. Everyone signed the document, and if anyone noticed Ichigo's unsteady hand, they didn't mention it.


	8. Contracts

Shiro was sitting in their playroom looking over what they had decided on for their final contract. Contracts in the community were fairly simple, and as a first training contract for their lovely little pet, they had been quite specific. After six months, they would reassess the hard and soft limits as Ichigo got used to the situation. He smiled to himself. Their new pet was well versed in what most of the things meant if he was surprised by some of the stuff people got off on. Considering what he was seeing, he was sure their play would morph into him dropping into scene the minute he entered their home.

He thought back over what they were accomplishing. He was musing when there was a tentative knock at the door. He looked up to see the blonde haired officer when he called out.

"Kira, come in," he said absently, quite frankly so comfortable in the surroundings he forgot he was sitting at a desk inside the playroom and in the office. He caught the choked cough and looked up.

"Ah, oh, sorry 'bout that, forgot I was in the playroom, would you rather go to the office?" he said, seeing the man's wide eyes taking in the set up he'd created in the last couple days after their visit to Dangai.

One wall was reserved for the display cases Shiro had built a while back. They were black lacquered wood with customized fittings to hold each of his very wide assortment of whips, flogs, crops, and paddles. Decoratively etched glass covered the front of each door. He was quite proud of his collection. There was a second similar cabinet where all of his ropes, shackles, chains and cuffs were placed, each one having a particular way he liked it stored. The third cabinet was covered with frosted glass in front, but the various sex toys could be discerned inside as well as the various gags he had collected over the years. It wasn't that he was hiding them, he just liked the shiver that went down someone's spine when they couldn't see what was contained in that cabinet.

The second wall had the larger props stored and set up. He had several sets of spreader bars, various types. He had set up a hang bar from the ceiling and the swing he adored was currently clipped to a wall. The stationary shackle frame was still leaning there, unsure how to mount that particular thing that Renji had brought with him. Looked like fun, though. He had several other seats and restraint objects, including a strait jacket, a chair that looked similar to an electric chair but was simply a restraining device. He also had a Sybian, and he saw the red faced officer's eyes widen a bit at that. Shiro smirked.

There was one of the full sized beds against the last wall, beside the closet door. They had covered the bed with a latex cover, then used black satin sheets on it. Beside the bed was a cabinet that Renji actually had brought, like a medicine cabinet only it contained an extremely wide array of lubes, massage oils, and things to be licked off. He knew he liked licking, but he was actually surprised by how deep the man's fetish really went. Besides that, there was a small refrigerator containing things for cold play and tasty treats for their fun.

Inside the closet were all manner of outfits meant for their fetish play. It seemed that Renji enjoyed role play quite a bit, and Grimmjow had expressed an interest in forced transgender play. Sounded fun to Shiro. So in that closet, they kept their play clothes. Of course, Ichigo hadn't come in here since the first day. He was almost afraid to let the tentative sub into the room, and convinced him that he had to wait until he was completely finished setting it up.

Currently, said sub in training was down in the office, going through mountains of paperwork for the time that they had been gone. He was brought out of his reverie when the door opened again and he saw the black haired officer's eyes go wide.

"Hisagi! Fraid Ichigo has taken over the office for his work, so I'm forced ta use the space for my own purposes. If ya are both uncomfortable, we can go down ta tha kitchen," Shiro said thoughtfully. They were vanilla after all.

"I..wow," Kira managed. "After the club I figured that…you were into this…but wow. You're really into it."

Shiro grinned. "What I'm into isn't just some sex games like some of those wannabes at tha club, sweetheart. For me, and the others, this is a lifestyle, not just a pastime."

"So, okay, we gotta live here, so I get what this is," Shuuhei said, looking around. "And I see that the three of you are doms, leaving the only sub the doctor," he said, somewhat nervously.

"Actually, I'm not a dom," Shiro said, standing to streach. "I'm a switch."

Kira looked between them. "Okay, I got dom is dominate, sub is submissive, what is a switch?"

Shiro grinned again, walking over to his case of flogs. "I'm one that likes both. In fact, this collection," he said, running fingers over the glass before his flogs and crops. "This is what I like to have used on me. I generally don't get into the whipping of others, but I'm a painslut, so I like to bleed when they're done with me," he said thoughtfully, feeling the tingle up his spine at the thought. It had been too long since he'd been whipped raw.

"Are you guys going to do that to him?" Kira asked, looking concerned.

Shiro shook his head. "Only if he wants us to, don't worry, it is all consensual. We use a contract to make sure no one does anything they don't want to do. Besides, I think he's a pleasureslut. He's not a slave, he's our pet, after all, so we won't do anything to ever hurt our precious pet."

The two officers looked between each other. "Contract?"

Shiro nodded, handing over the paperwork. "Literally, a contract. It lists what we want to do, what we don't ever want to do, and what we maybe will do, what the safe words and signals are, and what the boundaries are. For instance, the office is out of bounds. It is the one place here that Ichigo can go to do whatever he desires without being in scene and it is where we will go and have discussions dealing with scenes and how we are interacting. Ichi-pet's work is his own, nothing will ever interfere with that, so he will not be restricted by any of us for trips, training, hospital related functions. That is Ichigo's area of complete control. The only form of control we retain is the cuff and his choker. Anyone in the lifestyle will recognize it for what it is, and anyone else will think it jewelry."

"And what exactly is it? You put a collar on him at that club, and he hasn't taken if off all weekend," Shuuhei said frowning.

"Training collar, meaning he's accepted us. The thin collar, the one that bastard at the club busted, was a consideration collar while he thought over whether he wanted to join us in this lifestyle. The training collar indicates that we are going to give it a go. Kinda like engagement rings. And if he decides, we'll have a bonding ceremony, maybe official wedding between two or more of us for legal reasons, and then we'll have formed a permanent group. Four is an unusual, sometimes triads are common, but never said we're normal. And tha doc needs more than one of us," Shiro said, looking over the pages.

He handed them over to the two who saw that they did indeed read like a real, legal document. "See, look how it splits things. Like the first area talks about sex. Now, none of us was partially interested in the whole armpit sex thing, so that's been struck from the list. All parties are willing to give and receive oral, however, Grimmy and Ren are strict doms, so they have set a hard limit for penetration. Ichi-pet and I, however, have no such problems. Well, it is currently a hesitancy for dear Ichi-pet, since he's never had sex before."

He indicated the next section. "Now, under bondage, you see how Ichi has blanket agreed to everything. This is the reason we brought him into our group. He's suffering with all the stress and anxiety in his life. So, being bound lets him let go of control, which he needs but cannot do on his own. He also loves pressure, which is provided by the massive snuggle sessions you've seen downstairs. He likes to be held and kept close. So we provide that and fill the need. We also don't ask him to stop being himself like the rest of the world. Of course, his outbursts will be met with…consequences. But he happily comes to us with them. The point is, we are providing him something no one else can."

Shuuhei shook his head. "I still can't get over the fact Renji Abarai is gay."

There was a snort from the open doorway. "Not gay, dude. Not by a long shot," the redhead said, moving in to look around. "Fuck, nice work Shiro, babe," he said. "Fuck, how many whips and shit do you have, man?"

Shiro snorted. "As many as different types of fuckin' lubes an' oils you have."

Renji turned and arched a brow and nodded. "Fair enough. I do like my variety. Fuck dude, you have more sex toys than a goddamned sex store…" he said, opening the one with the frosted glass. "Fuck, dude, I can't even tell you what I'm thinkin' right now…" he groaned, shutting it.

He turned and saw the two slightly flushed officers. "You tryin' convert the straight boys now, Shiro?"

Shiro shook his head. "Nah, but figured if Ichi-pet is gonna be as subservient as we think, they might need to know what was going on. Especially if he takes a likin' to the leash or the day long bondage under his clothes like I think he will."

Renji nodded. "Fuck, I'm horny as fuck, can I put some of those toys to work on ya, Shiro…" he groaned, leaning into Shiro's back.

"Fuck you, not subbing today. Go fuck blue boy," Shiro said, shuffling through the papers again.

Renji pouted. "You know he don't wanna bottom…"

"Then take some toys and fuck yerself," Shiro said with a smile.

"I wanna fuck a certain orange haired sub…" he grimaced, flopping into a bean bag chair.

Shiro tsked. "Well, he's gotta be ready first. Something tells me he's a little minx under that cool exterior. Especially after reading his preferences."

Just then the door opened and Ichigo stood there with a scowl. "Um, need…fuck."

Renji was up in a second and pulling him into the room. His hands were both thrumming madly against his thighs as he pulled the smaller man down into the bean bag with him, wrapping his arms around him tightly. "What happened, pet?"

"Called Tatsuki. She was mad. And I couldn't tell her what happened. And she was so mad and then I started to tic and she got mad because I was ticing like always, and then I just…"

Another set of arms wrapped around him as Shiro sunk on the other side. "Hush, pet, hush," he said, as they both squeezed him between them until his eyes fluttered closed and his thrumming hands relaxed. "Hrm. Thank you," he muttered, sleepily, utterly exhausted after spending the entire day catching up on paperwork from his time gone.

"Ren, take him to bed, you wanna stay with him?" Shiro said, extracting himself from the pile. Renji nodded, lifting him effortlessly and sweeping out into the other room where Grimmjow had already settled in for the night.

"He finds comfort in our touch, so that's all the encouragement I need on the situation," Shiro said, leaving the contract and heading downstairs for a snack.

Kira hesitantly picked it up and scanned it again.

Each section listed the types and kinds of things that it pertained to. Sex was broken into types of sex, including anal, hand jobs, use of dildos, vibrators and plugs, oral, sex outside, sex with others, sex with other parts of the body, licking and teasing. The next one was a bondage section. It split things into types of bondage like materials of the cuffs, and other stuff like duct tape used to tie up someone. As Shiro had said, Ichigo had indicated that he was very willing to try any kind of bondage and restriction. As he looked down the listing, he also wanted them to control other aspects of his life, something called power plays within the dynamics of the group. It seemed Renji was really into role playing and dress up stuff, and Ichigo had very few things he indicated that he was absolutely not willing to try. It seemed, that in doctor fashion, the only thing he refused were things that could lead to disease or long term damage such as anything to do with bodily fluids other than sex related, and things like electricity, cutting, guns, and the like. Of course, he knew what could do damage that was serious.

"Man, I never knew that this stuff was so serious…" Shuuhei muttered. "The detail in this, wow. Wonder if they'll let us watch…"

"Watch?" Kira choked, turning brilliant red.

Shuuhei gave him a crooked smirk. "Why not? Says here none of them mind being watched."

Kira shook his head and left the room, followed by Shuuhei. They looked in the bedroom to find all four in various positions around the doctor who was curled in the middle of the two beds. Such a strange set up. Shuuhei wondered if they should let their superiors know what kind of set up they'd made. But then, he didn't think that would be fair. He shut the door to the room and realized it had a self-locking mechanism. Interesting, he thought. Easily opened from the inside, but not from the out.

"Why did they tell us all this?" Kira said looking at his partner.

"Well, Izuru, in case you didn't notice, the albino likes to be whipped, so my guess is that us hearing screaming won't be uncommon occurances. These walls aren't soundproof," the raven said rolling his eyes.

Kira paled. "How…how do we know when something is wrong, then?"

Shuuhei hadn't thought of that. "Well, then we need some sort of thing like the safe words that will signal when there is real danger."

The next morning was Ichigo's first back at work, and he was nervous beyond belief. He'd managed to work his way through all the hellish amount of paperwork he had when he returned, and today he was already lined up from 8am until 2:30 with consultations on "impossible" or "inoperable" cases. To his relief, no one had died that he could have saved while he was hidden away. He wasn't sure he could have handled that. The alarm blared at seven and he rolled out from under the pile of arms, legs, covers and softness. He headed to the shower and completed his morning rituals and came out to find all three of his mates awake and dressed.

"What's this?" he said with a soft smile.

"We shall accompany our dear doctor to his first day back, in case our services are needed in the cuddle department," Grimmjow said with a smirk. "I know how stressed you have been, and today will be worse. We'll just chill out in your outer offices with the protection patrol, and be there if you need us."

Ichigo's smile lit up his face. "Oh, you don't know how much this means to me. But…" he hesitated, his hands interlacing for a moment.

"Remember, Ichi-pet, yer hospital is yer domain. While we're there, you are the only one in control," Shiro reminded him gently. "Just like yer office. Anything professional is off limits, okay pet? Unless you want something from us like some squeezin'."

Renji smiled but held something out. Ichigo frowned as he clasped a necklace on him. He touched it and felt it was a choker chain, and at the front was a small little solid silver circle. He smiled, feeling the familiarity. It was different than his collar but no less safe. He smiled to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Ichigo nodded, and they all headed out to Shiro's car again. He was starting to understand the allure of the things. He wound his hands tightly with Grimmjow and Shiro as soon as he was out of the car. They glanced at him.

"Ichi-pet, ya want to go in like this? I know ya haven't told anyone about us…" Shiro said hesitantly.

Ichigo shook his head. "No, I need you all close today, so don't you dare let you," he said in a strained voice, feeling Renji's hands kneed his shoulders and in they went.

At first it seemed like they were going to avoid attention, until a girl came running full tilt at him, eyes wide. "Dr. Kurosaki!" she exclaimed, staring up at him doe eyed. "You've been gone forever, I…had to see you in person!"

Then she looked behind him to realize he was accompanied by Renji Abarai. "Oh, gods on high, you're Renji Abarai!"

Renji smirked. "Ya, beat it, sweetheart, doc's got appointments today."

With that he steered his lovely little pet toward the elevator by the shoulders, leaving a very confused teenage girl behind them. They settled into the elevator, but as soon as the door closed, Renji had an armful of Ichigo clinging to him, muttering thanks. Renji petted his head gently and then pushed him back smiling.

"Shh, I'll handle the rabid fangirls, been doin' it long enough," he said gently, interlacing his fingers with Ichigo's this time. Grimmjow stood in front and Shiro reclaimed his other hand.

Soon enough they were on the floor where his office was, and they headed down the hall quickly, getting more than one stare as they went. They didn't expect the dark haired Kurosaki elder and the blond administrator to pop out of the office as they neared it.

"Son!" Isshin said with a grin then his brows knitted, seeing that his son's hands were both entwined, and despite his glance, only got tighter. He saw the tension mounting, and he glanced at the blue haired one who shrugged mildly. "Come in, come in, Kisuke want to talk to you before your first appointment!"

Ichigo nodded, and yanked on both of the men he still held in deathgrip. Grimmjow hesitated at the door but followed obediently when Ichigo shot a glare at him. Both older doctors looked confused as the three men that were housed with Ichigo entered and flopped down on the couch. Ichigo stood and frowned at them and snorted. They'd taken up the entire couch. He turned back to his father and Kisuke. He saw the knowing smirk on his mentor's face, and realized he was staring at the necklace he was wearing.

"Father, I'm fine, great actually," he said.

"Son, I was so worried, and they wouldn't let me have any contact, I was afraid you would cope badly…" he said hurriedly.

Ichigo glanced back at his new companions. "I found a way to cope. Better than I ever had before."

Isshin looked confused but one glance at his friend behind him and the knowing smirk on the blonde's lips, he knew something was up. "What do you mean, a way to cope?"

Ichigo had hoped that he would be able to put things off a while, and found himself fingering the necklace thoughtfully. "They've helped me out with everything. I'm clear headed, I'm not stimming when I'm working, and I have nearly no anxiety."

"I don't understand, you aren't on anything for the symptoms, the changes should have set you off…" his father said.

"They did, pop, boy did they ever. I'm surprised I didn't rip someone's head off at first. But…but…we figured it out. I figured it out. And I've got what I need," Ichigo said and sighed, his hands going to his thigh and drumming, anxiety mounting.

Behind him, he felt the eyes on him. "Ichi-pet…" came Shiro's voice.

He nodded and backed up, sinking into Shiro's lap, the albino's arms wrapping around his ribcage protectively as he leaned into it. Shiro rested his chin on Ichigo's shoulder. The thrumming stopped and he sighed. "I gotcha, pet," he muttered, nuzzling into his neck.

Isshin wasn't sure what to think as he watched the strange albino interact in a far more intimate way with his son than he liked. He frowned again as each of the men to the sides of him grasped one of each of his hands seemingly focused only on him. "Better?" asked the blue haired man.

Ichigo nodded, clearing his throat. "Yeah," he said, and all three let him go and he stood up, patting the albino's arms appreciatively. "Okay, I know this is going to be hard to get used to, but I'm with them, we're…a group, I guess. I…we…care about each other, and our time in the safe house drew us closer together, and now…I can't imagine living without them around me."

Isshin blinked, but there was a knocking at the door, and he was being drug away by Kisuke as Ichigo's first appointment had arrived. He smiled at them. "Wait in the next room, I'll let you know if I need anything," he said and they all went next door to wait on their doctor.

About halfway through the first appointment, the opposite door opened and the black haired nurse came storming into the room where the three were waiting. Shiro was feeling a bit needy and had opted to curl up into Grimmjow's lap, while Renji was reading some awful magazine.

"Why are you here?" she demanded.

Shiro raised his head up from where it was buried in Grimmjow's neck and looked at her. "Ah, yer his nurse, ain'tcha?" he said, shifting so he was straddling Grimmjow's lap with his back against him.

"He has guards, you should go. You're going to be a distraction to him, and he doesn't need distractions today after what he's been through, so get out of here before I have security take you out," she said, eyeing them.

Renji looked up. "I wouldn't do that. You'll piss him off royally."

"I don't care, I know what is best for him!" she announced, reaching for the phone as she spoke.

"Tatsuki," came Ichigo's voice from the doorway. His patient was sitting at the desk going over paperwork, a fifty year old with an aneurysm that was fit to blow any day now. "What are you doing?"

"Ichi, you don't need the distractions, they need to leave. And I know you won't tell them what you want them to do, so I'll have security take them out," she said, starting to dial.

Before she touched a button, Ichigo had moved and pulled the phone from her hands. "You will not."

"Ichi, you're stressed, I get it, but you don't know what you need…and you need…"

"I know exactly what I need, Tatsuki, and I thank you to keep that in mind or I will have Kisuke bust you back to ER nurse before you can say anything else," he said, cooly, and for once, in a confrontation, he didn't stutter, he didn't fumble.

She blinked at him and took a step back. "But you need to be looked after, Ichi, I'm sorry but this isn't healthy…"

Shiro slid off of Grimmjow's lap, seeing the tremor in Ichigo's hand. He grasped the hand, sliding up beside him, and began to slowly run his thumbs around it. "Easy, Ichi-pet, easy."

Tatsuki's brows knitted. "What?" she said, and then Grimmjow was behind him, arms encircling his ribcage, and he dropped his chin to one of Ichigo's shoulders as Shiro had done. "Right here, pet," he murmured in his ear, and Ichigo smiled softly, eyes fluttering at the pressure around his ribs.

"M'okay," he muttered, and both Grimmjow and Shiro stepped back, Grimmjow dropping to the couch and Shiro slinking into his lap again. He glared at his friend. "You'll have to accept them. They're going to be here, one or two or all three anytime I ask them to be."

She glanced and saw the black wristband that Ichigo wore, and her glance took in the other three, seeing similar ones. "Ichigo…you aren't serious? You're in a polyamourous group? You don't even understand what this is! You…you are inexperienced!"

Ichigo nodded. "Yes, yes I am. And they've accepted me for who I am. Nothing is expected of me other than what I give, and for once in my life, people that accept me, stims and tics and all. They don't try to train it out of me. I don't have scripts or checklists or anything. I can be me."

"This isn't right, they're preying on your inexperience," she said, growing angry at the three obviously predatory men in the room. "They're…they're trying to get your money. They don't care about you like your father and I. Wait, does he know?"

"I told pop when we got here. And no it doesn't matter what you or anyone else thinks. This works for me. They are helping me deal with my issues, and I'm more focused and clear because of it. Now if you excuse me, I have several more people who need my skills to save their lives," he said, and turned back to his office through the glass door that separated the waiting area and his office proper.

Tatsuki glared at them. "You're lying to him. You're just trying to use him."

Grimmjow planted a gentle kiss to Shiro's jaw. "No, we love him. You should try handing out unconditional love sometimes. It works wonders," he commented.

"I'll see that you don't hurt him. I'll put a stop to this," she said, a threat in her voice.

Renji put down the magazine. "Not a good idea, hon, he's stubborn and if you push him…you won't like the results."

"It's nothing but post-traumatic stress from being kidnapped and forced to live with you three in the safe house while they had him hidden away from everyone. It hurt him, and now he's changed and that's not good," she said, her shoulders still tense.

Shiro sighed as Grimmjow continued planting kisses along his jawline and into his white hair. "Look, sweetie, ya need to let yer Ichi grow up. And look for what is best for him, not what you think is best for him, but what really is best for him. We give our Ichi-pet comfort, stability, and the ability to be himself and let himself go. Really, you should lighten up. This isn't even about sex, considering Ichi-pet is as pure as tha driven snow."

Tatsuki huffed and left, slamming the door behind her. "Wonder how many people are going to come give us a 'talking' to like that…" Renji said, going back to the magazine.


	9. Family and Friends

By lunch Ichigo was frazzled to a huge degree. Five scheduled surgeries later, the first set up for nine am the next day for the guy with the aneurism, he was ready to collapse, and he went into the waiting room and flopped unceremoniously into Renji's lap after yanking the magazine from his hands. He oofed and clutched him closer.

"Hey pet, how ya doin'?" he said with a smirk.

Beside him, Shiro had fallen asleep with his head in Grimmjow's lap, who had picked up a paperback novel about some supernatural detectives off the shelf. He glanced up at Ichigo's entrance, and ran hands through Shiro's soft, white hair.

There was a soft knock and Ichigo groaned. "Come in," he said.

Renji started to sit straighter, and pull him off his lap, but Ichigo wouldn't allow it. "Nuh uh. Stay still, not moving," he said softly. Renji rolled his eyes as the door opened to reveal the blonde doctor and Ichigo's father. His father looked at the group with a little trepidation, but he'd brought in food for them all.

"I thought you could use some lunch, so, ah, Kisuke and I thought we'd bring by and I could spend some time with my precious boy and his…friends," he said, a strained smile on his lips. Renji noticed the backwards glance to Kisuke and wondered what had gone on there.

"Not hungry," Ichigo muttered, burying his face into Renji's chest. Renji glanced at Grimmjow, their eyes locking, chocolate on blue. They'd been through this before. A lot, actually.

"Pet…" Renji muttered. "You need to eat. You skipped breakfast, and we didn't say anything. You aren't gonna skip lunch."

"I'm not hungry," he said again, sitting up and glaring at the red head. "I'm not in the mood to eat right now."

Shiro had woke up by then but Ichigo hadn't noticed yet. He snaked a pale, black nailed hand onto the low table and grabbed a riceball with his slender fingers. He poked him lightly in the side, eliciting a gasp, and before Ichigo could react had slipped up and shoved it into the orange haired doctor's mouth.

He grinned at him as the petulant doctor contemplated spitting out what Shiro had put in his mouth, but the look on Shiro's face made him reconsider that. He chewed and swallowed, still glaring at the albino. He didn't want to upset him.

"Now, was that so hard, Ichi-pet? Ya know you aren't getting' away without eating 'round us," he said, holding out a plate with chicken on it. Ichigo glared at it then felt all three of them watching him.

"Fine," he huffed, taking the plate and eating with his head down. "I don't have to like it."

Grimmjow laughed then, rolling his eyes at the doctor. "For a doctor you don't take care of yourself at all," he commented.

Ichigo grumbled in response, putting down the plate, thinking he was finished to their satisfaction. Renji snaked a hand out and handed him a plate with vegetables. "Nope, you're not done, pet," he said, getting his own heated glare.

"What happened to not interfering with workplace stuff?" he muttered, around his mouthful of vegetable stir fry.

Shiro snickered. "Ichi-pet, you aren't gonna take care a'yerself without us around, are ya? We saw that quite clearly. Ya can't starve yerself, even here, we won't let ya."

Kisuke nodded knowingly at Isshin who sighed. "I…am surprised by this development," he began.

Ichigo looked up. He really dreaded the explaining of things. His father looked at Kisuke. "But, I've talked to Kisuke about what's obviously going on here…and he thinks that it may be beneficial to Ichigo, provided that he is…safe."

Shiro was the one that spoke up. "I was raised in this life, Doc. My mom and dad brought me up in it. Renji's got five years, and Grimmjow is new, but his sister is also involved with her own boyfriend."

Isshin looked at Kisuke. "Kisuke has told me that this could be good for him, because of his particular needs, which it seems you are quite aware of by now. Kisuke hasn't been involved in the…lifestyle you apparently lead, but he has been around the block some."

Kisuke smacked him on the back of the head. "I'm not old, old man," he said. "And by being around the block, he's talking about the fact that I've dealt with people with Ichigo's condition for the last twenty years, and I've seen all sorts of things work and fail on people. And considering how calm and collected, Ichigo is since he returned, I recognize something that is working. I am worried of there being three of you…" he said glancing across them.

Shiro shook his head. "Two, I'm a switch, doc. I'm training both them and Ichi. And I also need you both to understand, I'm a stickler for the rules. And the number one being that Ichi-pet gets taken care of, and his well-being is the first and foremost in our lives."

Isshin nodded. "I am still hesitant…I…this is new to me. But I'll give it a shot, as long as he's safe. I don't need, details."

Ichigo stood up then, putting down his empty plate and hugged his father. "Thanks, pop. I know this is weird, but I've never been normal."

Isshi smiled, and pushed him out to arm's length. "I worry for you son. And I get the stress you're under. I know it is hard for you to deal with all this. And if this helps you be happy…then this will work for me. I still don't need the details."

"Don't go in the playroom, then," Grimmjow said with a sigh.

Ichigo nearly choked on his drink. "Shiro's done?"

Shiro beamed. "Not yet, Ichi-pet, almost though. I know you were upset last night when you wandered in there, so you didn't get to look around. But I'm sure you would have been a bit red faced before you left, my innocent one."

Shiro reached out and pulled him down onto his lap. "Now, you feel better? You ate?"

He rolled his eyes and nodded. "I guess. I've got three more appointments this afternoon, then we can go home."

There was a knock to his office and he groaned. "I don't even get a full lunchbreak. Hey pop, could you…talk to Tatsuki for me. She's…she's pulling overprotective sister mode and tried to throw them out earlier…" he said, waving to them as he left to the office, letting in a woman with an adolescent girl.

"What happened with Tatsuki?" Isshin asked, glancing at the three remaining men.

Shiro sighed. "She seemed to think that Ichi-pet isn't capable of making his own choices, and that our intentions are less than pure. She doesn't understand, obviously, what we're trying to do to help him. Honestly, it happens a lot, especially when you're in a polyamorous group, it's even unusual in the lifestyle. Most people don't understand it isn't a matter of sex, but support and care. Though the sex is fun too…" he said, grinning devilishly.

Isshin nodded, glancing over at Kisuke, their conversation from earlier coming back to him.

_"What are they doing to my boy? Kisuke, they were all three pawing him, I'm going to have them all thrown out, and Ichigo is coming to live with me, threat or no threat!" he said the minute he entered his office with Kisuke that morning._

_"I don't think that's wise, Isshin. I think you need to calm down and consider what our son has been through," Kisuke said, removing the striped hat and placing it on the table. "He was kidnapped, molested, very nearly raped by none other than Aizen. Those three boys rescued him, brought him here to have him looked after, and then all four of them got shoved in a safehouse where Ichigo was by far the most volatile among them, removed from his obsessions, his routine, everything. You and I had the discussions of how bad this could get with the police, but they refused to even let us see him."_

_Isshin had calmed a bit. "Yeah, we weren't sure how bad he'd be when we got back. Since he would refuse food, or even to come out of his room if he was allowed."_

_"But he came out with these three and they had taken care of him, very good care of him, by the look, since they were there over a month. He's healthy, hasn't lost any weight, and he's calm. He's not stimming, and it was getting bad even before the kidnapping. So obviously, they're doing something right," Kisuke continued._

_"But they're into…that weird…kinky…" he started._

_Kisuke sighed. "Isshin, are you really wanting to get involved in your son's sex life?"_

_"But he's not…" he said and stopped. "Oh gods, I just assumed he'd never have a sex life. That because of his oddities he'd never find anyone…and…oh. I really didn't see this coming."_

_Kisuke gave him a crooked smile. "You thought your twenty three year old son would just never have sex, really, Isshin?"_

_Isshin sighed. "He's so logical and I didn't think love would ever be on the agenda. And I really didn't expect him to show up with three men as his love interests."_

_"Is it the fact he's interested in me, or that there are three of them that bothers you? Or the fact they're obviously into bondage?"_

_"All," he said honestly. "I mean…it doesn't fit the rules he's been taught, the things we taught him about relationships and the things the therapists trained him and gave him scripts and practiced with him…he's so much in control of everything, he always has been…"_

_"And that's the problem."_

_Isshin frowned. "What do you mean?"_

_"Think about it, Isshin. He gets taken care of, instead of taking care of someone else. He doesn't have to think, plan, control, he lets them take over. He needs it. It lets him relax."_

Now, looking at the three, he understood. Their interactions were smooth with each other, attending to Ichigo's needs before they even thought about themselves.

"He won't be treated poorly, right?" he said softly. "I mean, I've had rounds in ER, I've seen some…things go bad."

Shiro smiled. "He's not a slave, doc. He's a pet, there's a difference. We take care of him, that's all there is. He isn't made to serve us, he isn't made to be anything he's not. Trust me, you'll see me with worse than he'll ever get," he said with a smirk.

Isshin frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I guess I should tell ya since we'll be around ya, but I like pain. Got a thing for bleedin' and bruisin', so it may come up. Don't like inflictin' it, I leave that to these two brutes, but when I'm in tha mood, I like to be flogged within an inch of passing out. So if ya ever see one of us in here, it'd be me, just cause that's my thing," Shiro said with a sparkle to his eyes. "And if ya worried about the chances of STDs and stuff, don't be. All three of us are clean, we sent off for tests before we even approached Ichi-pet about the offer to join us. And we are a dedicated group," he said, pointing to the wristband that the three shared. "We don't have relations outside the group. If things go well, we'll take things to the last step and make it a permanent bonded group. Like a marriage, only it involves the four of us."

"And what about the…weird things?" Isshin asked. "I know there are lot of…things."

Renji smiled. "Already wrote an initial contract, doc, don't worry. We know yer son's limits and where he wants to go and where he doesn't."

There was a bit more discussion then the door opened to reveal the dark haired nurse standing there, a frown creasing her face.

"I told you to leave," she said, staring between the three who were now slowly picking at the remains of their food.

Isshin turned to look at her. "Arisawa, that isn't very kind of you to say such things to Ichigo's friends. There is no reason they need to leave, we were having a nice talk."

"In which I hope you were telling them to stay away from your son," she growled, locking eyes with Grimmjow.

Kisuke sighed. "Of course not, Tatsuki. These boys are taking very good care of Ichigo, why would we want them to stay away?"

She gaped at the blond. "What? All they want is his money and to sleep with him! They only want to take advantage of him! He has no idea what they are, and he can't make a choice for himself, so you will have to do it!"

Isshin turned to glare at her then. "What are you saying?"

"Ichigo is incapable of understanding this. He is just doing what he's told, and you need to stop it."

"Arisawa, I suggest you hold your tongue," Isshin said, standing slowly to face her. She took a step back. "Ichigo is more than capable of making choices for himself, and if he chooses to be involved with this lovely group of young men, it is his choice, and I have already discussed it at length with both them and my son. It is not your place to make his choices."

She looked at them, wide eyed. "You…you agree with this? It's…not natural! What they're doing isn't normal!"

"It helps Ichigo," Isshin said softly. "He's calmer, happier, and more put together than I've ever seen him. The only thing bothering him is your attitude. You may choose to accept his partners, or you can be transferred to another floor and I'll find a nurse that will accept him and his partners. Choose to accept it, or choose to leave his side as a friend."

She stared for a minute and turned and left without another word. Isshin saw that the only one seemingly bothered was Grimmjow who looked nervous. Shiro put a hand on his and smiled. "Ren and I are used to the reaction. You will be too. The only place we're safe from it is in the Dangai, you'll have to understand that. People don't get that what we do is consensual. I can't tell you how many times I've had to explain my back to someone who then flipped out about me being in an abusive relationship with someone, then when they found out it was my kink, they decided I had the plague. I've always been careful, and I've learned first aid, and all doms should, by the way, so you two need a class."

"I could help with that, boys," Kisuke said with a smile. "I've given more than one seminar for aftercare in my day."

Now all eyes were on him. Isshin cocked his head. "Were you into this stuff, Kisuke?"

Kisuke hid a smile behind his clipboard. "I dabbled in college, dated a lovely little submissive girl. We broke up because I couldn't take it as far as she wanted, but she had some rather…unusual kinks that could turn life threatening so I preferred not to indulge her."

Shiro nodded. "Asphyxiation, gunplay, knifeplay or electricity?" he asked.

Kisuke smiled. "Electricity and asphyxiation."

"Wait, you…" Isshin said, eyes wide.

"Ah, wait up there protective father figure," Shiro said. "Ichi-pet marked off those things first off the bat as hard limits, so no worries. Those things won't ever happen with us. Turns out none of us are interested in the potentially lethal stuff, so it works out."

Kisuke put a hand on Isshin. "The jewelry tipped me off, in case you were wondering, Isshin, you hadn't asked how I knew the situation. It marks them as a polyamorous group, and Ichigo's necklace with the ring marks him as their submissive. Only someone who knows a bit about it would recognize it. I understand you have agreed to limit your play to the household?"

Renji nodded. "In a way, except of course now we find ourselves here, having to enforce some of those controls on him to get him to eat, so I'm not sure how this is going to work out."

Kisuke nodded. "Yes, well, why don't we set up an aftercare seminar for tomorrow night, here in Ichigo's office, and if there is anyone else you'd like to bring, you can. I'm sure you know a dom or two that could use some first aid training."

"I'd like to help, too, if this is going to be part of my son's life…I want to be involved, though I'm not sure how his sisters will take to this," he said, thinking of his twin daughters and their overprotective nature of their big brother.

Grimmjow nodded. "I'll call Nel, Shinji just turned her dom, so she's in the dark as far as first aid goes. Shiro explained aftercare, but there could be some more, I don't think she quite understands the dangers of subdrop though…can you handle helping with that?"

Kisuke nodded. "I'll brush up a bit on my terminology but I do remember the concept of subdrop. Something you will have to be very careful with Ichigo, once you start more serious scenes, if that is his intent."

Shiro nodded. "Yeah, I had a suck-ass dom once that let me go…fuck, I was out of it for a week afterward because the bastard disappeared ten minutes after he untied me. Fucker. I ever see him again I'll fuckin' kick his ass to the moon."

"Fuck, that's harsh. Were you even outta subzone?" Renji asked, arching a brow.

"No, came out of it alone on the bed fuckin' back bleeding and couldn't even patch it myself. Called fuckin' Gin, I remember, he rode it out with me," Shiro said with a sigh. It obviously still bothered him a great deal. "Fuck, been two years, and still makes me wanna choke the bastard. He never came back to Dangai after that, of course, Gin and me fuckin' tellin' everyone what a shit dom he was mighta had somethin' ta do with it."

Isshin looked up as Ichigo came coming into the room, fuming. There was a loud door bang from his office, and a man and his son were walking away.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," Ichigo muttered, fists clenched tightly. All three of the others acted, Shiro and Grimmjow separating and Renji grabbing him and steering him to sit between them. Then he kneeled in front of him and rubbed slow circles on his knees.

"Pet, what is it?" Renji asked softly as Shiro and Grimmjow encircled arms around shoulders and waist squeezing tightly.

He exhaled long. "Kisuke, patient Jared Vestmore, the thirteen year old with the brain tumor, damage control, please."

Kisuke arched a brow. "How bad?" he asked, wondering if he came in with a verbal tic how bad it had been.

"Called me a few names, tried to explain, proceeded to get angrier. Held my tongue until I got in here, but he's claiming he's going to sue the hospital for fraud because I'm obviously not who I'm supposed to be," he said, eyes still closed. "Just need a minute. Last appointment in fifteen. This day has been far more stressful than I imagined. Dealing with these people is trying."

Isshin smiled. "Son, you've done amazing today. You've had back to back appointments all day, and you haven't had a complete breakdown. Have you even needed your checklists or scripts today?"

Ichigo leaned forward opening his eyes and blinked, brown eyes unfocused for a second. "Come to think of it, no. I…I haven't even thought about the scripts or checklists today at all…and I've done okay. I've actually done okay."

Isshin smiled and saw the looks on the other three's faces. "Usually, a confrontation with a patient or family sets Ichigo up for a breakdown and he's done for the day and we have to reschedule everything. However, he's already talking about going to the next appointment. If I didn't see this, I wouldn't believe it."

Ichigo nodded. "Now, if you can get Tatsuki off my back."

Isshin smiled. "I had a talk with her already. Gave her the choice, stay here or go to another floor, but staying here means accepting you and your boys. Oh, Kisuke and I are holding a first aid and aftercare training tomorrow night for your group and anyone else that wants to come. Turns out Kisuke knows a bit about this stuff…" he said glancing at the blonde.

Ichigo stared at him. "How do you know…"

Kisuke pointed to the necklace. "I dated a sub once, a very long time ago. Learned a lot before we broke up, so your dad and I talked about it. And so now we'll help out your friends too."

Ichigo looked up at his father. "Pop, are you okay, I mean, I know this is a little off normal…"

Isshin smiled. "I'm okay with this, son. I see that this is good for you."

"Um, also, is it going to be weird if I wear my actual collar around you? If it's too weird, I'll just wear this, but…I like my real one…" he asked, glancing up under hooded eyes. "I mean, it means I'd be…you know…in role, because this is for when I'm here at the hospital."

"Son, whatever makes you happy, and if that is what makes you comfortable, then I won't mind at all," Isshin said with a soft smile. "It may take some getting used to, but as long as you aren't running around in leather…"

"Don't come by the Dangai…" Renji muttered and Ichigo turned red.

Renji received a playful slap. "Ren! Don't talk about that…it was bad enough you wanted me to wear that in public."

Renji gave him a wide grin. "But pet, you looked amazing, there wasn't a dom in there who didn't envy me, and I liked it…"

"Anyway," Ichigo said, pushing all three of them away, then planting a kiss to each of their foreheads. "I've got one more then we can go home. And I'm going to need some serious stress relief," he said with a groan, seeing another parent/child waiting at the door.

Grimmjow yanked Shiro into his lap again. "I think we can handle that stress relief, huh, Shiro?" he said, winking at the albino.

"Hah, I just got out my flogs, blue boy, I expect to get some service out of those powerful arms of yours or Renji's," he muttered, laying back with his head over the arm and his feet resting on Renji's lap when he set down.

Isshin smiled and stood up with Kisuke. "I'll leave him to you, but you know I'll give you the same warning I give my girls' boyfriends, and its pretty simple. Hurt him, and I'll hurt you."

Grimmjow looked up and smiled. "I'm glad you care about him that much, Dr. Kurosaki," he said.

"If you guys are going to be around, call me Isshin. Or pops. Who knew my son would give me more son in laws than my daughters," he muttered, leaving the three smirking men behind.

After a while, Shiro sighed. "I think we take it to the next level if he's up for it. I'm done with the playroom. But we should still take it easy for his first time, both in scene, and first time period."

"So how do we go about this? I mean, we've fucked you six ways to Sunday, Shiro, but he's different. You like it fuckin' rough," Renji said, smirking at the man who was currently wriggling his toes into Renji's rapidly swelling crotch.

"Easiest way is to ask him. See what he wants. I'm subbing tonight, mostly because I am dying for a subzone after all the stress of taking care of our little doctor. But that also means that you two are going to have to do the aftercare for both of us. Are you going to be able to handle it? Or do we need to wait until the aftercare seminar?" he said, looking at them each seriously.

Grimmjow looked nervous. "I…I don't know the first thing. All the stuff we've done with you has been pretty tame…"

Shiro nodded, grabbing his phone and pulling up a website on aftercare. "Here, blue-baby, read up on here, gives you the basics for a painslut and bloodplay sub like me. For Ichi-pet…I doubt he'll want more than some bondage and maybe some playing with toys and if he's up for it, sex. But we'll see."


	10. Giving

Ichigo was a bundle of nerves standing in the doorway kitchen. He was thinking about the playroom, now finished. He'd been in it, and Shiro had finished up a few things before dinner. They ate together and then as Ichigo cleared the dishes, Shiro came up and wrapped arms around him.

"How about we do some stress relief, Ichi-pet?" he said softly.

Ichigo nodded before he thought. "I'm stressed a lot," he said almost not really noticing what he was saying. Shiro grabbed his hand and pulled him up the stairs, followed by the other two. He'd already put on his training collar and as they entered, Shiro grabbed a thick black collar off the rack near the door that held collars and leashes of various types. He buckled it on and gave a sigh. He wouldn't be able to be as submissive as he wanted, because he needed to keep an eye on Ichigo, but this would suffice.

"This is your first scene, Ichi-pet. Remember the safety words, the stop lights, and remember that no matter what else you say, that's the only thing that counts, okay? I'm going to sub too, I need a flogging, but that's what I want, okay, pet? Don't be nervous. Now, are you ready to go all the way like we talked about before? Or do you just want to watch? Remember, you can change your mind at any time and have us stop."

Ichigo swallowed. "I…I want to feel good, so…"

Shiro nodded. "Okay, we're going to go over this a lot more later, sweet, tonight is just to get you used to what we're doing. There's something we'll talk about a lot, and that's just what I was saying. Consent. Remember that, Ichi-pet. Anything you don't want, all you need to do is say so. And the same goes for anything you do want. We'll do things that stretch your limits and you need to remember to use the stoplights to indicate no or yes. That's why I want you to watch tonight more than anything, and maybe get off with one of the big bad doms. I want you to pay attention to this though," Shiro said, stripping as he spoke. "Risk Aware Consensual Kink is what I live by. That means that I know that having Renji flog me has some risk to it. It is possible to injure me. It is possible to develop an infection in one of the welts. But I am well aware of that. I guess it is similar to those crazy fuckers who do extreme sports. They end up laid up all the time, but it doesn't stop them. This is the same thing."

Shiro was naked now except for his collar and Ichigo again marveled at how white and smooth his skin was. Even with the scars on his back, it was beautiful. "I take care of myself, and my doms take care of me, and I take care of my subs. That's the important thing to remember. Some people like to be choked, like breath play, and they are well aware of the danger that suffocation presents, but they take that risk. Keep in mind, Renji is only doing what I want. If I want him to stop, all I have to do is tell him red light, and that's it. So I could yell no, stop, all I want, which is part of the thrill of it all, but when I really want him to stop, I say red light. I doubt it, Renji's a good dom, he doesn't go too far and we've had long talks about what I like. No matter what, we choose to do this, and no one forces me or you to do anything you don't want. I like pain, from what I've seen, you don't. And that's fine, now, any questions? Nice and slow for you, okay? And remember, when Renji is talking to me, this is what I tell him to say. He'll call me a slut, and say filthy things, but I love that more than flogging sometimes."

Ichigo blinked and just shook his head, taking in everything around him.

"Who do you want to be your first, pet?" Renji whispered in his ear.

"Um…I…" he stammered, not wanting to upset either of them.

Grimmjow snaked an arm around his waist. "Pet…" he purred, "Whoever you like, no hard feelings for either of us, okay, pet? We'll both love you in the end."

Ichigo looked up at his first crush and smiled shyly. "Um, Grimmy…I think I'd like you to be my first…"

Renji kissed his ear. "Good pet, you chose, now…on yer knees, pet."

Ichigo fell to his knees and watched as Renji began to circle Shiro who stood watching with hooded eyes. "Have you been a naughty slut?" he asked Shiro.

Shiro smirked. "Very naughty, master, I need to be punished."

Renji was quietly circling the albino, he was still dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, much like Grimmjow and Ichigo. Ichigo was fascinated.

Grimmjow was behind him now, and he felt his hands run down his arms, sending shivers through his body as he watched Shiro slowly watch Renji, his body moving to follow his movements now and again. Ichigo was still amazed at how white his skin was, and he could see traces of old scars over his back and he wondered how many times he'd been whipped, but they were so faint. He felt his shirt being unbuttoned and pulled off slowly, leaving his upper body bare to Grimmjow. Grimmjow ran his hands over his chest and began to play with his nipples, getting a sharp gasp as he felt a jolt of pleasure shoot through him.

He felt Grimmjow stand up and a moment later, he felt leather cuffs snapping onto his wrists, but he was watching the way Shiro's body moved as Renji would step forward and touch him and step back. Before long, Renji grabbed a set of cuffs and chains from the table and had cuffed Shiro's pale arms together, followed by his ankles. He then yanked him by the chain to lean over the low table, snapping the shackles down into place at the top and he pulled out a riding crop from the cabinet beside the table.

"What do you need, my little slut?" he asked, walking around the table and putting the crop under Shiro's chin and lifting him up.

"Punish me, so hard, make me bleed, I've been soooo naughty," he said, his pale hips wriggling as he spoke.

Ichigo was fascinated as Grimmjow pulled him to his feet, and barely noticed when his remaining clothes were removed. Behind him, Grimmjow soon had stripped himself down and watched the show Renji and Shiro were putting on. He lowered himself down into one of the large chairs and pulled Ichigo into his lap, holding his hips tightly, gently tugging the chains that attached the wrist cuffs to the D ring in the collar. He flinched when Renji put the first stripe of red across the albino's back. Shiro groaned deeply and arched into it though, and to Ichigo's surprise, he could see him getting aroused already. He didn't notice his own arousal.

"Pet likes to watch, Ren," Grimmjow said suddenly, hands stroking down Ichigo's the outside of Ichigo's thighs.

Both Renji and Shiro turned to glance at him and were taken aback by the sight. He was sitting nude on Grimmjow's lap, mouth open and panting slightly, face flushed bright red and hands gripping to Grimmjow's thighs below him. His cock was starting to swell just from watching them play out Shiro's desires. Ichigo ducked his head, flushing darker, only to have his collar yanked behind him, bringing his head up.

"No, pet, watch," Grimmjow said in his ear. Ichigo nodded slowly.

Renji gave them both a wink and went back to flogging Shiro's pale back. Before long, Ichigo and Grimmjow were both fully aroused and Shiro was begging to be let up, that he'd had enough. But he hadn't said the safe words, so Ichigo kept in mind he was getting what he wanted to get out of the night. He was panting and writhing with each stripe across his back, his cock painfully hard now. Renji had paused and slid a cockring on him to ensure he didn't come just from the flogging. He was begging more to have that taken off than anything else.

Ichigo could feel Grimmjow's hardness under him, but he hadn't done more than stroke him a few times, making him moan and wiggle on his lap. He was laving his neck and back with his tongue, putting small kisses and bites along his skin. It felt amazing, this strange attention. He was enraptured by Shiro's scene and wanted to feel good…but he wasn't sure about going so far as Shiro. He didn't think he liked pain that much…

He felt Grimmjow move and the ankle cuffs that matched the ones on his wrists were applied gently, though he didn't really notice until the pull of the chain made him realize he'd been restrained fully now. His wrists were secured to the collar, though he had enough play to move his arms to his lap, and his legs were attached to each other with a length of chain. It wasn't a tight binding, but Grimmjow was going slow to begin with. Still, even the gentle chaining had him more aroused than he thought possible.

They'd talked about his sexual experience, and found it fascinating that he'd never even self-pleasured, so it was no surprise when Grimmjow slipped a ring down onto his cock to keep him from going too soon. He moaned at the stimulation and rocked back against Grimmjow, who smiled against his back.

Renji had stopped flogging Shiro and was lapping and kissing at his neck and back, gently licking his way down to his entrance, where he began to suck and lick in ernest. Ichigo's eyes widened a bit at the sight, not really expecting him to lick _there._ Shiro seemed to enjoy it a lot though. A moment later, Renji reached over to the cabinet and pulled a couple bottles of lubes. He tossed one at Grimmjow who caught it easily, and took the other and coated a finger with it.

"Is my slut ready for his reward for taking his punishment so well?" Renji said, sliding his finger up and down the crease of Shiro's body.

"Oh yes, fuck, yes…" he moaned, bucking backward until Renji pressed a finger inside him, getting a long, drawn out moan from Shiro. "Fuck, yes, more…"

Grimmjow placed a sucking kiss on his neck and Ichigo heard the flick of the bottle, and felt something against him. At first he tensed, but Grimmjow whispered into his ear as he swirled his finger around the rim of his entrance with the warm gel. When Ichigo relaxed a little, he pressed his finger in slowly, getting a gasp from him. Grimmjow steadied him with a hand on his hip, and worked his finger in him slowly. He wanted to make very sure not to hurt him his first time, so he took time and final pulled out and applied more lube, pressing in two fingers this time.

Ichigo groaned against the sensation. It wasn't painful, just odd. He was beginning to wonder why Shiro was practically begging to be fucked when Grimmjow's fingers brushed against what he knew medically to be his prostate. However, he never knew such a small bundle of nerves could shoot so much pleasure through him. He gasped and leaned back against Grimmjow.

Renji had worked his way up to three fingers. "Such a little slut, look at your greedy little hole, sucking me in like this, you want me to fuck you, don't you, my little cock slut?"

"Oh, yes, fuck, fuck me, please, now, get in me now, please, I can't stand it!" Shiro moaned against the table, writhing his hips backward onto Renji's fingers.

Renji withdrew and slapped Shiro's ass barehanded. "Don't get too greedy, little slut, I'll make you wait even more…"

Shiro whined, opening his legs even further in quiet request. Renji, though he enjoyed the playing, was hard enough he hurt, so he opened his jeans and slathered himself up with the lube and pushed into Shiro in one fast thrust.

At that moment, Grimmjow slid a third finger into Ichigo's tight opening, and he barely flinched, eyes glued to the sight of Renji taking Shiro hard and fast enough to make the chains rattle loudly against the table. After a few minutes, Grimmjow felt he'd prepared him enough.

"Ichigo, my pet, are you sure? I don't want to rush you into this," he asked quietly. "Remember, you don't have to do this tonight," he said, rubbing his fingers over the stretched opening.

Ichigo swallowed. "No, I do, I do, please…I want you to take me, here, now, please Grimmy," he said the last in a near whine as Grimmjow lazily stroked his throbbing cock.

Grimmjow nodded, slathering himself up with the lube and pulling Ichigo over him. "You control it, however you're comfortable, Ichi-pet, okay? I'll help, but you move when you're ready."

The sounds of Shiro and Renji were intoxicating, the moans, screams and pants. Ichigo almost didn't notice when the head of Grimmjow's more than ample cock slid past the ring of muscle into him. He gasped and reflexively tensed. Grimmjow held onto his hips and grimaced. "Relax, pet, relax…" he said. Ichigo breathed out and watched Shiro and Renji again. A moment passed and he nodded, allowing Grimmjow to guide him further down on him. It felt more strange than painful, a feeling of fullness, but it felt…incredibly warm. He sunk finally until he was flat against Grimmjow's lap and leaned his head back, letting himself adjust to the strange feeling.

Grimmjow stroked his hair and rubbed circles into the small of his back as he laid kisses along his neck. After a few moments, he began to move a bit, and Grimmjow adjusted himself to angle just right to… Ichigo let out an almost inhuman sound as his sweet spot was brushed against by Grimmjow's movement. Grimmjow smiled and looked over to Renji who reached around in front of Shiro and released his cock ring, initiating a long, low growl from the albino as he came against the table he was leaned over. Renji's hips stuttered and he followed him over. The sight of both of them coming sent Ichigo's body into more frantic motion but his inexperience made him more frustrated. Grimmjow smiled and leaned further back and began using his hands to guide him up and down, slowly working him into a frenzy of his own. He dropped his head back and whimpered, and Grimmjow took over completely from there.

Renji pulled away and reached over and unhooked Shiro's hands. Shiro had slipped into a dazed state, it seemed to Ichigo, and Renji fell into the big bean chair and pulled him into his lap and began stroking his hair and hugging him close to him. The tenderness was so in opposition to the violence of the flogging, but it seemed to fit. Ichigo felt Grimmjow growing tighter under him and he reached forward and released the ring on Ichigo's cock, and the second he did, he was slammed with an intense orgasm that sent the world into senseless white that left him a panting and boneless heap in Grimmjow's arms. He barely registered Grimmjow following him, filling him with his own release, and the world just seemed to blissfully fade out from his vision or a moment and then was back, and everything was brighter, louder, more vibrant. Grimmjow moved to pull out of him, and the weird, wet feeling was strange, but he turned and snuggled into Grimmjow's arms with a satisfied hum. He felt the cuffs being removed more than anything and was lifted up slowly and then they were in the bath together. Grimmjow washing him gently and holding him incredibly close.

When they came out, Renji had cleaned Shiro's back, who was lying flat on his stomach on the bed now, almost asleep it seemed. Ichigo flopped down on the bed beside him on his back, robe from the bath barely covering him as he snuggled into Shiro's personal space. Shiro smiled and turned over to look at him as Renji rubbed the antibiotic into his back. He looked less dazed than Ichigo but he seemed extremely relaxed and sated.

"Well, Ichi-pet, you seemed to enjoy your first time with Grimmy," he said softly.

Ichigo nodded, still somewhat dazed and sleepy. "It's okay, sweet pet," Renji said. "You'll be a little blissed out for a bit. Let Grimmjow take you to bed, and get some rest. The first time is pretty intense, even by proxy. Grimm, stay with him, we don't know how long he'll be out of it. Keep awake until he's asleep if you can," Renji added slowly.

Ichigo didn't have words so he nodded, and felt himself gathered up into Grimmjow's powerful arms and taken to the next room, where he was treated to a back massage that relaxed him so completely, he didn't even remember falling asleep…

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

Ichigo woke feeling warm and content. His muscles felt like he'd run a marathon, though, but he was feeling so good it didn't matter. He groaned and stretched out and was greeted with a kiss on each cheek and one on his lips. He blinked and found himself looking up into Shiro's exotic eyes, Grimmjow snuggeled into one side, Renji into the other.

"Hum, dog pile?" he muttered and grinned.

"Ichi-pet, how are you feeling this morning?" Shiro said, looking him over carefully. "Here, turn over," he said and Ichigo gasped as he felt Shiro flip him suddenly to his belly.

"Hey what are you…!" he squeaked suddenly when his shirt was tossed up and Shiro proceeded to check over his nether regions. Ichigo giggled as he ran hands over his thighs.

He flopped his nightshirt back down and grinned. "Sorry, pet, just checking you over after your first time. Grimmy isn't tiny. But looks like he did a good job beforehand. Good boy, Grim."

Ichigo rolled back over and frowned. "Of course he did."

Shiro leaned down and captured him in a quick and dirty kiss before he rolled off the bed. "Come on now, up with you. Shower, pet, we've got another day at work!"

Ichigo groaned. "I don't want to go in today. I've got surgery first thing…" he muttered, sliding down off the bed and went into the bathroom.

"And tonight is the aftercare class, remember?" Shiro called after.

The other three got ready and Shiro looked over his back. "Not bad, Renji. Though you could definitely do with a bit more speed on the downstroke," he said.

Renji shook his head, walking out as Shiro slipped on a dark shirt over the bandaged Renji applied. "Sorry, not really used to beating someone with a riding crop…" he said, catching Hisagi's attention as they entered the kitchen.

Shiro yawned. "Practice makes perfect! A few more times, and you'll have me bleeding on the first swat."

Kira was staring. "I don't understand it," he said finally. Shiro looked up at him and smiled. "Don't understand what, sweets?" he asked.

"The whole flogging thing. That pain thing, it just…I don't understand how you could like something like that."

Shiro grinned. "Tell you what, tonight, we're doing an aftercare session with Ichigo's dad at the hospital, it will help explain some of it to you, why I like it, why I sub and dom both."

Ichigo came down finally, pulling his white coat on and was fixed with three sets of eyes. He ducked his head, reaching over and grabbing a couple pieces of toast with jam and held them up. He got three smiles in return.


	11. Learning Curve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Aftercare instructions are easy to find online, but make sure you use a reliable source material. The reference I used for this page came from http://chicomunch.com/publ/basic_info_about_bdsm/bdsm_101_subspace_aftercare_and_sub_drop_and_sometimes_top_drop/1-1-0-23. Please message me if you have any questions about aftercare.
> 
> If you enjoy Doctor’s Training, please visit onthetrainingofdoctors/ashesofreality.com to read about my original yaoi novel that is loosely based on the plot of this story. It is currently a project being funded through kickstarter, so become a backer today and get some awesome prizes. Visit https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/beverlylynnanderson/on-the-training-of-doctors for more information and soon a sample first chapter. The published work will be more polished, filled with original artwork, and vibrant characters of my own creation as well as those of my co author.

Ichigo was sure that this was the first time he’d ever not wanted to go into work before.  He didn’t even notice when Shiro packed a bag full of stuff for the aftercare class.  He was excited and nervous about that.  As it was, he headed into surgery feeling more confident than he’d ever been before.  He had no idea that something like the night before could make such an impact on his overall attitude about things.  He finished up surgery, a relatively simple procedure, and left to go to his office and find his three lovers waiting for him.

“Ichi-pet,” Renji said as he came in.  Renji had taken up a place in the large chair in the corner of the room.  Ichigo was craving the read-head’s attention now.  He made a bee-line for the seat he was in.

Ichigo smiled and crawled onto Renji’s lap and buried his face in his neck.  Renji’s eyes went a little wide as he glanced at Grimmjow and Shiro who were sitting on the couch beside him.  They snickered and continued reading.

“Renji,” Ichigo muttered against his neck.  “I’m…I’m…”  Ichigo didn’t know how to explain it.  He was coming down off the surgery high, but it was hard to explain to someone else. 

He felt Shiro’s hands on his shoulders.  “You okay, Ichi-pet?” Shiro said gently, kissing his neck as he spoke.

“I just…I can’t explain…I don’t…” he muttered, face still buried in Renji’s neck.

There was a pause and he felt both of Shiro’s hands sliding down his hips under his scrubs.  Any other time, he would have protested, but his hands felt so good on his skin.  He hummed and felt Renji adjust and felt his rising hardness against his own crotch where he straddled the other man.  Of course, he was wriggling against him pretty intensely.

“I think we’ve turned him into a little pleasure slut already,” Shiro said with a smirk, hands sliding around his hips and down onto Ichigo’s inner thighs.  “Are you our little pleasure slut, Ichi-pet?” Shiro breathed into his ear.

Ichigo couldn’t answer, he was far too distracted by Shiro’s wickedly talented fingers massaging the inside of his thighs so he groaned in response instead.  He wanted more again, but he didn’t want to seem…  He felt Shiro’s lips on the back of his neck and Renji pulled up his face and locked his lips onto Ichigo’s.  Ichigo’s eyes sprang open and he stared into Renji’s chocolate cherry eyes.

“Ren, wanna put that tongue of yours to work on our little pet?” Shiro breathed against Ichigo’s neck. 

Renji smiled into the kiss he was imparting on Ichigo.  Shiro’s hands slid out of Ichigo’s scrubs and Renji stood up in one smooth move, standing up with him held tightly against his chest.  Shiro slipped into the chair, undoing his jeans as he sat down and pulling his own hardness free and stroking it as Renji leaned over and sat Ichigo on his lap in the same position he’d been in the night before.  Ichigo felt his scrubs being worked off his hips but somehow he didn’t mind.  He’d completely forgotten that they were in his office.  He honestly didn’t care if someone walked in at that moment.  He was so far from being able to care, that it was almost like an ache had developed inside him that had to be fixed.

Renji pulled away from the kiss, brushing Ichigo’s hair from his face gently with a smile.  “Here, you relax, baby,” he said, sliding down to his knees and pushing Ichigo’s legs apart over Shiro’s lap.  Ichigo watched as Renji went down and sucked his arousal into his mouth and gasped.  That was an unexpectedly good feeling, he thought as Renji worked his tongue around him.  Shiro slid his hand underneath and began to stroke his entrance with something slick and he wondered just when he’d gotten lube and where the hell that had been?  He felt someone near his lips and blinked as Grimmjow locked lips on him and smiled.

Ichigo jerked as Shiro slid three digits into him suddenly, stretching him in one go.  There was a twinge of pain, but considering he’d just done this thenight before it wasn’t too bad.  Immediately, his fingers curved up and began relentlessly stroking his prostate and only Grimmjow’s hands holding his shoulders down kept him from jerking completely off Shiro’s lap.  Renji grasped his hips and lifted as Shiro slid out his hand and Ichigo wasn’t sure what he was doing at first until he felt the stretch when Shiro’s cock slid into him smoothly.  He winced because he hadn’t been expecting that so soon.  Shiro’s hips slammed up quickly though and Ichigo let out a long low whine as he felt the pressure of Shiro’s hands pulling his behind him.  Renji was having to hold his legs down because they wanted to flail under the intensity.

“Shh, my pet, beautiful pet,” Shiro whispered, holding his wrists with one hand while he pinched and twisted one of his nipples mercilessly.  “You’re so hot, I’m melting inside you, you know that?” he whispered, biting at his ear gently before he licked the shell.  Ichigo responded with a moan as his eyes rolled up.

Grimmjow held his shoulders and he was well and truly pinned in place, and it made him even more aroused than before.  Renji was holding the base of his cock tightly to keep him from going over just yet, but he was holding his hips at the same time as he leaned on his legs to hold them down.  Shiro had impressive leg strength to hold the position he was in.  Ichigo’s body began to work on its own, and before long he was riding harder on Shiro than Shiro expected.  “Fucking hell, Ichi-pet,” Shiro groaned.  “You’re a right fucking cowgirl…” he muttered and grunted against him.

The dual sensation of Renji’s mouth and Shiro’s cock were almost too much, and Grimmjow biting at his nipples and then sucking on them like that.

“I…I can’t…please, please,” he moaned, believing he couldn’t take much more of it.

Renji swallowed hard against Ichigo and let go of the base at the same time.  Ichigo almost screamed as he came down Renji’s throat and Shiro groaned, thrusting up hard and following Ichigo immediately.  He’d enjoyed last night, but it had been a while since he’d topped someone that was practically a virgin.  “Oh, my fucking god,” Shiro gasped. 

Grimmjow laid his head down on the arm of the chair, having managed to go off after watching the scene, but at least he’d gotten mostly free of his pants, he’d still need to change.  Renji likewise had made a complete mess of his jeans.  He never had a problem going when he gave blow jobs.  He got off on it as much as his partner did.

Ichigo panted and didn’t notice when they cleaned him up and redressed him.  The world faded out pleasantly and he snuggled into the warmth underneath him and dropped into a hazy sleep.  He didn’t notice the outside blinds move slightly.

-oooooo-OOOOOO-oooooo-

The room was fuller than Ichigo expected.  He was nervous as he stood at the front of the small conference room with his father and Kisuke.  Shiro had the bag from their house on the table as the room filled up with people, including of course Shinji and Nel.  Ichigo had put on his collar to stave off the nerves and he stood nervously by Renji’s side, gripping his hand as people sat down.  He noticed that the others who were subs were also wearing their personal collars and he noted that Shinji was wearing the pretty one he’d gotten.

Shiro looked at the clock and clapped loudly.  “Hello and welcome.  Most of you know me, hell half of you I’ve played scenes with.  Unfortunately,” he said, holding up his wrist with the leather cuff, “I won’t be doing scenes outside our group any longer.”

There were a couple people that groan at that statement.  “Now, that said, it has come to my attention that we have new people as well as old people,” he said, glancing at Renji.  “They don’t understand proper aftercare routines.  Now, first of all, new people, show of hands?”

Several people, including Nel, Ichigo and Grimmjow raised their hands.  Grimmjow had sat down in the front row and Ichigo stood beside Renji who stood at the front with Shiro.

“Obviously, my Ichi-pet over there is new, but we have a new Dom in our group, Grimmy there.  So, considering that Ichi-pet is a doctor, and so is his father, we thought this would be a good chance to have a real session on aftercare.  Now, first we’re going to discuss physical aspects.  Can anyone tell me the first step after a scene with a sub?” Shiro said, sitting down on the table and looking around.  No one seemed inclined to answer right away.

“Okay, guys, don’t be shy, I’ve seen most of you naked and been fucked by half of you.  Now, just because Ichi-pet and his dad are here, don’t clam up.  What happens after a scene to a sub, and sometimes the Dom/me’s body?”

One of the timid looking girls in the back of room spoke up with a much stronger voice than she appeared to have.  “The intensity of the play or the scene causes an increase of chemicals and hormones in the body, when the scene is over, those stop being produced as the stress on the body is gone.  The first step is the regulate body temperature,” she said, getting a smile from the collared and much larger man beside her.

“Very good, my dear.  Now, does body temperature rise or drop?” Shiro asked, smiling.

“Drop,” a female sub near the front said.  “I feel like I’m standing in a freezer.”

“Right, the very first concern is keeping the person warm, all of you should have throw blankets and warming pads in your kits that you keep with you.  The hand warmers are also handy that you break open just in case you need extra heat.  Now, what is another physical trait of someone after a scene, in particular an intense scene?” Shiro said, looking around.

“Exhaustion,” came a voice from the back.

“Correct.  Do you know what causes both the drop in temperature and the exhaustion?” he asked, looking around.

Quiet was the only response.  “The body has gone through a stress response.  The muscles have been heightened, chemicals released, hormones rushing through the body.  The same response post-scene can happen to people who have been in a car accident or to athletes after an aggressive workout.  What we do is not all that different from those that do sports, and that needs to be remembered.”

Shiro glanced around.  “Now, one thing that may help if you have a sub that is particularly physically weakened after scenes is to use the same thing that athletes do.  Protein bars should be kept on hand in your kit.   Subs, your kits should contain things you like and written instructions for any Dom/me that you are playing with if they are not your regular Dom/me.  Dom/mes, you should have several kinds in your kit.  Water bottles should also be on hand to take care of dehydration from long or intense sessions for both parties in the scene.  Chocolate can be helpful to keep on hand both for the sugars and the opiode effect that resembles subspace.”  Shiro paused.

“Subspace, this is a good place to discuss this part.  You all know it, most have experienced it, and it is completely different for everyone, and possibly for every scene.  Shinji, what’s your subspace?” Shiro said.

Shinji thought.  “A buzzing goes off in my ears, almost like white noise and I can’t really think without effort.  I don’t feel anything at all, like all my aches and pains are completely gone, like I’m floating in warm water.”

Shiro nodded.  “And Menoly?” he said, pointing to a blonde woman in the back of the room sitting beside her partner, Loly. 

“I don’t know, like, something just explodes in my brain and the world looks vibrant and bright and I feel like I’m floating,” she said thoughtfully.  “Mine lasts almost all night after a scene though.”

“Right, so they are all different and sometimes they last five minutes, and they can last days.  What is the biggest problem of being in subspace?” he asked, glancing around.  When no one spoke up he nodded.  “I’m going to say it is the issue of being completely out of it and drugged out.  Now, I’ll have to admit, I’ve only seen Ichi-pet space out twice, and it is identical to the way he acts after he comes out of surgery.  I’ve taken drugs, and I compare it to a heroine or morphine high,” he said looking about.  Ichigo frowned and looked at him.  “Long ago, Ichi-pet, don’t worry, can’t play scenes when you’re on drugs.”

Shiro looked around.  “So, who here has been dropped by a bad Dom/me?”

Several hands went up, including Shiro’s own.  “Keep your hand up if you ended up in the hospital.”  A few went down, Shiro’s did not.  “And keep your hand up if it led to a suicide attempt.”  A couple hands stayed up, including Shiro’s.  “Okay, that’s good.  I want to point out to the Dom/mes in the room that this is important.  Subdrop is devastating.  It can happen for several reasons.  First, when a scene is abruptly ended prematurely.  That sometimes happens for reasons beyond our control.  Another is when a Dom/me does not stay with the sub and help them come down.  Subs can sometimes get inexplicably depressed after a scene.  Without proper aftercare this is even more likely.  Reassure your sub, and do not leave them as long as they are clinging to you because this means they need the tactile contact and reassurance.”

Shiro opened his bag and started laying out the items in there.  “This is my go kit as I call it.  I’m a switch, so sometimes I do one or both. Remember, public play is never as intense as private, so my home collection is far larger.  As you can see, I keep a full first aid kit,” he picked up and showed it.  “You should all have this on hand.  I’m a paramedic, so I also have a suture kit that I keep here,” he said, holding it up.  “Dr. Kurosaki will talk about this more in detail, of course.”  He held up a pack filled with protein bars, candy bars, and glucerna tablets.  “Diabetic supplies like these tablets are handy for sugar lows.  Non-diabetics can experience a drop in sugar that can cause them to pass out.”  He held up an mp3 player and a notebook.  “This is music that calms me and helps when I’m having a tough time coming out of a drop.  This is a book of detailed instructions on what to do if I’m incoherent after a scene.  You must have this if you are a sub, and it helps as a Dom/me to have something like this to record your play partners and their needs.” 

Shiro turned and held up another item, this time a book on first aid.  “Also good to have.  Now, those of you with tablets and smart phones, a lot of this can be in your phone or device.  You must not lock your device, however.  There is no way to get in if you are not able to tell someone the password.  If you have a password, make sure that someone is aware of it, and preferably your partner.”

He leaned back again.  “Can someone tell me what RACK means?” he glanced around.

Grimmjow smiled.  “I remember!  Risk Aware Consensual Kink?”

“Good boy, that’s right.  Now, what’s that mean for play?” he asked.

Nel smiled.  “You go in knowing that there are risks to play, and that there aren’t any surprises.”

“That’s right.  I’m a painslut, anyone else?” he said, looking at a couple hands.  “And I know some of you Dom/mes are sadistic bastards.”  There was a chuckle among the room.  “Now, knowing this means we, as the sub in the situation are very well aware that it can be dangerous.  We are trusting the Dom/me with our lives because there are very real risks to applying pain.  Some things are more inherently more dangerous, such as edge play, gun play, breathe play, and other more intense things.  When you are bound from head to foot, and someone is controlling your breathing, it is imperative you trust the other person.”

“Now, any questions on the subjects of subdrop and subspace?” Shiro said looking around.

Everyone seemed satisfied for the time being.  “Alright, now, Dr. Kurosaki and Dr. Urahara and I will split the room into three groups and we’re going to have small group talk about first aid, when you need to get someone to the doctor, and what to do when you need to save someone’s life.

Ichigo stayed beside Shiro as the groups split up.  Shiro had spoken with both Isshin and Kisuke earlier that day about what this part would be about.  They went over care for various types of injuries acquired during play, including welts, flogging cuts, edge cuts, passing out, and basic CPR and procedures in case of serious injury.  Everyone was invited to a full CPR class sponsored by the Dr. Kurosaki the next week.  There were also some discussion of specific care of sexual organs and what to do in case of serious injury during play.   By the time they were done it was almost midnight.  Everyone said farewell and Shiro could see Ichigo was emotionally exhausted.  Shiro cuddled against him in the back of the car and he’d fallen asleep less than halfway home. 


End file.
